


Light in the Dark

by AeonTheDimensionalGirl



Series: You're My Light (In the Dark) [1]
Category: Lego Ninjago, The LEGO Ninjago Movie (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, And I'm happy to post it on Pride Month, Awkward Flirting, Eventual Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Misako Is a Terrible Mother, Past Child Abuse, Romance, Slow Burn, Soulmates, chen is not far behind, i've been dying to write this, lloyd is a gay mess, tv universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-03
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-05-17 12:01:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 54,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14831919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AeonTheDimensionalGirl/pseuds/AeonTheDimensionalGirl
Summary: If there was one word to describe Lloyd’s relationship with destiny, it would be hell. After all, he had one hell of a (short) childhood and some pretty hell-driven-not-to-mention-traumatic moments in his adolescence. Now a Master, and with his family scattered once again, Lloyd really wishes destiny could give him a break. Little does he know, there’s a fellow in Ninjago with the same wish as him, and it’s about time their paths cross.Maybe destiny isn’t that bad after all.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Before reading, I would like to clear out some stuff with you guys:
> 
> -This fic is centered in the one year gap between S7 and S8 of Ninjago. 
> 
> -I had to come up with an entire freaking backstory for Chen the Cheerleader in the TV verse. I hope you like it.
> 
> -Yes, I purposely decided to upload this story on Pride Month.
> 
> -And, I don’t own Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu.

The house was quiet on the outside. Not even the crickets and the birds dared to make a sound, making the closest thing to a noise was the wind flowing through the trees, giving the house a haunted vibe.

Inside, the first floor of the house was a disaster; furniture, books and parchments were scattered all over, along with some empty bottles of wine and food. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that a fight had broken.

On the second floor, there were three wooden doors, but the one that stood out of the rest was the one at the far end of the hall, with a chair under the handle serving as a lock. In another time, the door could have been a true beauty, with intricate designs decorating the wood, but now most of the details were faded, while others had been damaged by cuts made out of sharp objects.

In the dead of the night, one of the doors opened slowly, barely making a sound. A figure clad in a dark cape and hood came out quietly, looking around the hall before approaching the locked door. Carefully, the figure removed the chair, momentarily freezing when it creaked as it was placed in the floor once again. With some slight fear, the figure once again scanned the hall, eyes finally setting the other closed door.

It remained closed.

The figure let out a small breath of relief before turning back to the task at hand. Opening the door with extreme caution, the figure entered the room.

Like the floor downstairs, it looked like a fight had broken in the small bedroom. Some broken chairs and a table laid around along with burnt paper and damaged coloring pencils. The window had also gone through some damage, as it was decorated with cracks and casting terrifying shadows in the room. There were also some nearly destroyed children story-book’s, but the figure wasn’t paying attention to those, as it had eyes for a boy that sat hunched at the far corner of the room, between the bed and a wall. The boy, who looked around the age of sixteen, was shaking, his cheeks wet with long-shed tears and puffy eyes that hold some fear as it stared at the black covered figure, who steeped closer into the light and removing the hood, revealing a girl around the boy’s age. The boy visibly relaxed.

The girl approached the boy quite quickly, pulling him into a hug.

“I’m getting you out of here” she whispered as she pull out and tried to wipe the tears from his face, “He has gone too far”

“No!” the boy whispered back with terror in his voice, “He’ll punish you! He’ll do the same thing he did to-” but the girl was quick to silence him.

“He won’t. I’m too valuable for his cause” she reassured the boy, “But you’re not, and what he did to you proves it” she spoke with an icy tone, her purple eyes directed to the door before centering on the boy again.

“I stole some clothes, blankets and food for you” she said as she took out a small duffel bag from her cape, “Hopefully they will last”

The boy hesitantly took the bag, his eyes flickering towards the burnt and broken papers and pencils, a silent question in this features. The girl gently smiled.

“I also put a sketchbook and some of my pencils” she revealed. The boy gave her a shaky smile.

“Should I- should I change my clothes?” he asked. The girl studied him for a moment. The clothes he wore were raged and small, and it hurt her seeing him like this, but time was precious. She shook her head. “I’m sorry, but there’s no time” she regretfully said.

The boy nodded before getting up from his spot, slowly making his way towards the door. The girl gently took him by the hand, shaking her head once again before gesturing to the cracked window, her companion letting out a silent “Oh”. With extreme caution, she managed to open the window without any of the cracks breaking or making a sound; both teens were quick to climb down, miraculously managing to not make a sound.

Once they were on the ground, the girl took the boy by the hand, taking him away from the household grounds and into the jungle, guiding him through the mass vegetation and swiftly avoiding guards. On one occasion, they passed through a familiar palace, and the boy couldn’t help but shiver as they moved by it. The girl, noticing his discomfort, quickened their pace.

Soon they made it to a beach, where a small boat waited hidden between some of the bushes and sea fog. The girl turned to look at the boy.

“Okay, in the boat you will find a compass and map to Ninjago City, and once you arrive there-”

“What will you tell him?” he cut her off, fear clear in his voice, “He’ll come looking for me, he’ll try to-”

“He won’t” the girl spoke in a soothing tone as she caressed his cheek, “I…. I will have to say some unpleasant things about you… but it should be enough for him to leave you alone and not look for you. Maybe convince him to disown you…”

“That could work” the boy agreed, “He was never a good father anyway” he spoke bitterly.

The girl stayed silent, instead gently taking him towards the boat, where the boy boarded a bit hesitantly, giving her a glance.

“You could come with me,” he said, “We could stay together as a family, you don’t have to participate in his game!” he pleaded. The girl faintly smiled.

“I already made my choice” she said, “It’s too late for me to back out”. The boy couldn’t help it, some tears fell off. The girl dried some of them with her hand.

“I’m not abandoning you,” she whispered, “After this is all over, I’ll meet you at mother’s birthplace. Do you remember the way?”

The boy numbly nodded.

“I’ll miss you, Sy” he whispered. The girl was about to reply, but a shout was heard on the distance. Looking behind in alarm, Sy quickly pushed to boat off shore.

“Go!” she whispered hurriedly. Wasting no time, the boy took hold of the rows and started rowing away from the shore. The girl stayed on the beach until she saw him disappear on the sea fog, before turning away and ran towards the palace, silently praying that destiny would be kind to her brother.


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“And I can’t help but stare,_  
>  _Cause I see truth somewhere in your eyes.”_  
>  Justin Timberlake (Mirrors)

_**3 years later** _

 

Lloyd Garmadon had to bite his tongue in order to avoid a groan of annoyance from escaping his mouth as he listened for the eighteenth time to Jay’s plan for Nya’s birthday party. It’s not that it bothered him that they were holding a small party for their friend, it’s just that Jay had somehow managed to change his opinion over where they should hold the celebration in the span of the five minutes Nya had taken to get ready.

Next to Lloyd, Cole exchanged a look with him, smirking slightly at the blond’s distress before deciding to intervene.

“I don’t know, Jay, I could cook something and we can celebrate Nya’s birthday here in the _‘Destiny’s Bounty’_ ” the laid-back ninja proposed. Jay gaped at him.

“And have all of us die of food poisoning? No thanks!” Kai cut in, face paling at the mere thought of having to eat Cole’s food. Lloyd couldn’t help but snicker at their expressions as the three ninjas started a loud debate regarding the restaurant and Cole’s cooking, with Zane giving some hilarious insight on the Black Ninja’s infamous cuisine.

Deciding to put some order in the room before Nya came back to find them discussing where should they eat, Lloyd loudly cleared his throat to gain their attention.

“I have a better idea,” he said before proposing, “How about we let Nya decide? She is the birthday girl, after all. And considering that she has memorized our food preferences, I’m pretty sure she’ll pick a good restaurant”

“Lloyd has a good point, there are at least five restaurants that Nya is most likely to choose that fit all of our favorites, two of them being close to the ship and the other three in the heart of the city” Zane declared.

A small silence took reign in the room as Jay, Kai and Cole thought about it, with the former two giving each other a look of agreement.

“Fine” they both said. Lloyd silently thanked the FSM as the room fell once again in silence, the only noise being Zane, Cole and Jay quietly discussing where they should go looking for Sensei Wu once the birthday celebration was over. Lloyd only caught bits of the conversation, something regarding mountain monks in the far northern mountains of Ninjago, when a slight tap on his shoulder gained his attention. Turning around, he found Kai looking at him with slightly worry.

“Are you okay?” the usual hothead asked. Lloyd blinked.

“What? Yeah, I’m fine” Lloyd answer with some slight confusion.

“Is just that… you look a little tired, man” Kai pointed out.

“Oh”

Great, now Kai was looking at him with the famous Smith sibling look: ‘Tell-me-or-I’ll-shake-it-out-of-you-no-I-won’t-drop-it’. Lloyd gave out a small sigh.

“I’ve been a little busy keeping Ninjago City safe” the blond started to say, “And I may have gotten some small sleeping time” he said the last part a bit slowly, knowing exactly what would be the Red Ninja’s reaction.

Indeed, when Kai finally processed what Lloyd had said, he had immediately taken him by the shoulders.

“What?!” Kai hissed, “Have you been eating at least? I know we all agreed that you’ll would stay protecting the city while we looked for Wu, but just because we’re not here 24/7 anymore doesn’t mean that you should neglect basic human needs!”

“Okay, first of all, I said I was getting little sleep, my eating habits have stayed the same. Second, it hasn’t been on purpose!” Lloyd felt the need to defend himself, “I’ve… been… doing some research myself… listening to the news and all” he said a bit lamely.

Kai raised an eyebrow, clearly stating that he knew Lloyd wasn’t giving him the whole picture. Lloyd turned away before his best friend could press further, noticing that Zane, Cole and Jay had both stopped their on conversation and were now looking at him with shared concern.

“I’m fine” Lloyd said with a dead-pan stare.

“If you say so…” Jay muttered as Nya came back from below deck, putting an end to the conversation.

“So, are you boys going to tell me where we are going, or it’s my decision to make?” Nya wasted no time in asking, as she put her hands on her hips and an amused expression on her features.

“Yours” the four boys responded. She rolled her eyes, but never the less gave out a little chuckle.

“Thought so” Nya said, “Come on, I know a place where we can get good food, fair prices and great service”

* * *

 

“Happy Birthday, Nya!” Skylor nearly tackled the Grey Ninja with a hug, “Hello, boys” she greeted the other Ninja entered the famed Noodle House that now belonged to her.

“Hi, Skylor” replied the five of them, while Kai gave her a shy wave, which Skylor returned before addressing his sister, “Food’s on the house today, and I’ll make you that cake I know you guys enjoy”

Lloyd, Zane, Kai and Nya immediately started to protest, but the Elemental Master of Amber waved them off, “Oh, please, consider it my birthday gift. Plus, I own the place, what are you going to do?” the red-head challenged as she lead them to a table before disappearing into the kitchen.

“She didn’t have to do that” Lloyd said as he opened the menu. Beside him, Jay huffed at him with some slight indignation.

“We got free food!-

“And cake!-”

“-I don’t see what’s bad about that” the Blue Ninja replied. Nya punched him lightly in the shoulder.

“I’m starting to think that your mouth was replaced with your stomach” she scowled her boyfriend, but everyone could see that she was fighting back a smile.

“Um, Lloyd?” Zane called for the blond’s attention from the other side of the table, “Won’t Misako join us?” the Nindroid inquired. Cole and Kai frowned, “Yeah, she’s not coming?” the latter asked.

Lloyd felt himself go tense at the mention of his mother, but forced his face to not give away his emotions as he debated to whether or not tell his friends the current situation between him and Misako.

“No, mom’s not coming” he prayed to his grandfather that his voice came out calm as he intended, “But she did wished for me to give you her regards, Nya”

Cole, Zane and Jay seemed to buy it, but the Smith siblings were giving him not-so-convinced looks. Lloyd decided that the best course of action was to hide his face on the menu and pretend to look over the options despite already knowing what to order, his mind wandering to the past months.

Sensei Wu, his uncle, the last family member Lloyd actually felt that genuinely cared for him, had been officially missing for six months. _In time_. Which could be anywhere and… well, anytime. Lloyd knew that destiny had not really been all that kind to him, aside from allowing him to continue living, but losing his uncle in the space-time continuum seemed to be another reminder that his life was somehow destined to be an angst-ridden opera.

A terrible written one, to add insult to injury.

He knew the Ninja missed the Sensei too, having been a strange combination of a father figure/weird uncle to all of them. No one had yet to have lost hope that Wu could be found and brought back home. It had been Lloyd’s first order as a Master to organize a search party in the common grounds of Ninjago to see if Wu had been around there. At last, February became March, and the Ninja, Maya and Ray Smith, Misako and Skylor all came back empty handed, without even a rumor to follow.

Around the end of March, the four original Ninja had all decided to go on divide themselves on small groups to try once again. Lloyd, as much as he had wanted to go and join them, stayed behind, knowing that someone should remain in the city just in case. Nya, on the other hand, had gone with her parents back to their village, and Lloyd didn’t argue against it. Even he knew that his honorary-older sister wanted to go back to her birthplace and spread a little of her new powers. Before they parted ways, they all agreed to re-group once a month to discuss their next move.

The April meeting came and went with the same results as the first quest.

The May meeting, held on Kai’s birthday, had some improvement, with news of a John Doe in the outer villages of Ninjago having reached Zane and Cole, but it had not been Wu, the man in question being the lost family member of a wealthy group in New Ninjago.

On June, Lloyd started to notice that crime had taken into observation the Ninja’s general absence in Ninjago, and so in the next meeting it was decided that aside from looking for Wu, they would also try to keep the criminals at bay, and so beginning Lloyd brand new headache and primary reason for lack of sleep.

And now here they were, in July, celebrating Nya’s sixteenth birthday after sharing another round of disappointment in the morning. The only thing that brightened Lloyd’s mood was Kai’s announcement that he would stick around in the city for the next month.

(There was a bet already between Zane, Cole, Jay, Nya and Lloyd that he was sticking around for Skylor)

But even so, Lloyd was starting to fear that maybe his uncle would never be found, and his growing anxiety over the lack of good news in the searches was starting to get to him. That, and Misako’s behavior in the past month-

“LLOYD!”

Kai’s loud voice took the young ninja out of his thoughts, nearly making him jump out from his spot in surprise. Lloyd winced internally when the loud POP! of a light bulb in the street reached the restaurant.

“Yes?” he replied once he managed to calm down. Nya and the rest of the guys were looking at him with a combination of expectation and worry.

“It’s your turn to order” Kai said as he looked past Lloyd’s line of vision.

“Right, right, um, sorry…” Lloyd mumbled as he turned to his right, expecting to see Skylor giving him a look of amusement.

But it wasn’t Skylor who was waiting to take Lloyd’s order. It was another guy whom the Green Ninja failed to recognize. The waiter looked around the same age as him and the other male Ninja, with light brown skin and dark chocolate hair. But the trait that caught Lloyd’s attention were his hazelnut eyes. They were bright, like a child’s when you tell them they can pick any type of candy the wish in the store, and yet they possessed a haunted look on them, like they had seen some horrors they would like to put behind. It was a big contrast to the somewhat patient look on his face, probably already used to customers who took way long in ordering their food…. Kinda like how Lloyd was doing at the moment. Before he could stop himself, Lloyd found himself asking:

“Are you new here?”

The waiter blinked, a look of amusement painfully similar to Skylor’s and slight confusion soon taking over his face, while Lloyd mentally slapped himself.

That’s not what he intended to order.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm writing this with a cold, I'm feeling like a superhero. Also, yes, the chapters will include a lyric from a song as the "Chapter Titles"
> 
> Anyway, hope you enjoyed the official chapter one, the destined one to pull the story forward.


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Bought my fate, straight from hell,_  
>  _A second sight is paid off well.”_  
>  Thirty Seconds to Mars (City of Angels)

While Lloyd was having a hard time remembering when was the last time he wished for the ground to swallow him whole, the waiter let a small smile grace the corner of his lips.

“Not really, I’m actually the chef,” he explained as he pointed to the silver door behind the counters, “But Skylor kicked me out of the kitchen, something regarding a birthday cake for a friend?” he finished the sentence with an unsure tone.

“I would be that friend” Nya pointed out with a slight chuckle.

“Congratulations” the waiter said, “Although I think she also wanted to make the homemade noodles herself, I know for a fact that there’s a guy she totally likes and loves to make those for him” he added with a smirk.

“Yeah, it’s this guy” Cole pointed at Kai, who had become a flustered mess as he took in what the waiter had revealed while Nya and Jay tried and fail to hide their muffled laughter.

The waiter blinked in surprise, but shrugged before centering his attention on Lloyd, who was still kinda wishing for the earth to swallow him.

“So, you ready to order?” he asked the blond, who forced himself to nod and ignored the smug looks Zane and Cole were currently giving him.

“I- um- yeah” Lloyd mentally slapped himself again. He was the Green Ninja, for FSM sake! He had faced the Overlord, evil computers and stone warriors! Why was he getting all awkward with a freaking waiter? “I’ll have the chicken noodle soup, with the lemonade” he hoped his voice had come out as smoothly as possible.

“Nice choice” the waiter said as he scribbled down the order, “Anything else?”

Lloyd thought about it for a moment.

 “You don’t bake?” he asked with a curious tone as he remembered the answer to his weirdly out of place question.

Now the waiter simply laughed. It was a nice laugh, warm and welcoming. It didn’t sound that he was making fun of Lloyd’s curiosity.

“Pretty sure that’s not a choice in the menu” the boy said with a smirk, only to wipe it out as soon as he saw Lloyd’s face deflate slightly, “But, um, yeah, baking is not really my forte. I can cook all the dishes in the menu, but not the desserts” he sheepishly admitted with a small smile.

“Oh” was all that it occurred Lloyd to say. The waiter soon took his leave after confirming with the rest of the group the orders. Lloyd fought the sudden urge to follow him with his eyes as he disappeared towards the kitchen. Instead, he turned to look at his friends, who were all looking at him with the same smug looks Cole and Zane had been displaying.

“What?” Lloyd asked as he started playing with a paper napkin.

“‘What?’ I’ll tell you ‘what?’” Jay started to say as he leaned in the blond’s direction, “You got adorably awkward in front of a stranger”

“I did not” Lloyd protested.

“Dude, you totally did” Kai agreed with a small smile, “That was some really adorable attempt at flirting”

“I wasn’t flirting!” Lloyd hissed, “I was just asking him if he was new, which hardly counts as flirting”

“Actually, according to my database-” Zane began to say. Lloyd hid his face between his hands as he groaned.

“-Don’t-”

“- _Flirting_  or coquetry is a social and sexual-”

“-FSM!-”

“-Behavior involving verbal or written communication, as well as body language-”

“-BODY LANGUAJE?!-”

“-By one person to another, either to suggest interest in a deeper relationship with the other person, or if done playfully, for amusement” Zane finished reciting the meaning of the word as he turned to look at Lloyd, who had gone from hiding between his hands to zipping his green hoodie all over his face in embarrassment. To this point, Cole, Jay and Kai were wheezing with laughter. Thankfully, Nya came to his rescue, waking both her brother and boyfriend in the head.

“Oh, come one guys” she said, “Just because Lloyd was curious about the guy doesn’t mean he is interested in him, like when Cole thought he was interested romantically in me only to come out as aro a few years later”

“Great, now my sexually is being used as an example” Cole muttered, but the amusement was clear in his face.

“Thank you, Nya” Lloyd breathed with some slight relief at her having his back. Nya smiled.

“You’re welcome” but her smile turned slightly mischievous, “But I gotta agree that it did looked like flirting”

Lloyd dropped his head on the table, muffling a barely heard, “I hate you”.

“We love you too, you little hell-spawn” Kai said as he ruffled the blond’s hair.

* * *

 

Twenty minutes later, the waiter brought their respective dishes, and they all practically pounced on their food, the atmosphere turning into a more comfortable one that the Ninja were used to, Lloyd almost feeling a small déjà vu on how the six of them fell into a routine: Nya berating Jay and Cole with a fond smile as they almost aspired their food, Kai adding extra pepper, even though he knew that Skylor prepared them with a good amount of spice; Zane eating his slowly, enjoying the culinary taste; Lloyd watching them with a small smile as he thought them as a strange family that he would defend with his life to keep. The only thing missing was-

 _“Nope! Not going to think about it now, not today, not in front of my friends”_ He berated himself as he picked up the chopsticks, _“They’re already worried, no need to worry them more-”_ He found himself stopping his little train of thought as the taste of his food finally connected with his brain and his eyes widened.

It’s not that Lloyd had never enjoyed the food at _Skylor’s Noodle House_ , but his plate today had a special taste that made him wonder if he was eating something from heaven. It actually reminded him of…. His father’s cooking. He wondered….

Gulping down and making sure that the other ninja hadn’t noticed his recent reaction, Lloyd discretely looked towards the kitchen doors and he could have sworn in his father and grandfather’s names he saw a mop of dark chocolate hair quickly disappear from the door’s windows. Blinking, the blond felt a smile at the corner of his lips and continued to eat his food, definitely thinking of complementing the chef before they left the restaurant.

A while after, when most of the costumers had already departed, Skylor showed up holding an ice-cream cake with some pretty wave designs and a cursive handwriting, and while Zane and Nya admired the cake and Cole took a picture for his Instagram account, Kai decided to comment on what the waiter had said about the homemade noodles.

“He told you that?!” Skylor shirked in horror as she finished serving Zane a piece of cake, “I’m going to kill him” she hissed.

“I think it’s was a sweet gesture” Kai said, “You wanting to make the noodles, I mean” he cleared out quite quickly as the redhead turned to glare at him. Skylor blinked as her glare turned into a flustered look as Kai’s words sunk in.

“Smooth” Lloyd whispered with a sly smile.

“You’re not far behind” Kai whispered back through gritted teeth. Lloyd retaliated by nudging him in the stomach.

Next to her brother, Nya rolled her eyes at the two ninja’s antics before turning her attention to a still flustered Skylor.

“So, have you heard anything from the other Elemental Masters? About Wu?” she asked in an almost hushed voice. The rest of the table leaned in, eager to hear the redhead’s answer. Her friend sighed.

“No, I asked Camille, who asked Karlof, who asked Ash, who asked Neuro and Gravis, who asked Tox, who managed to get into contact with the rest. They haven’t heard anything” Skylor whisper loud enough for the six ninja to hear.

“Well, there goes the last bit of hope for good news in this month” Cole muttered as he played with what was left of the icing, having already practically shoved all the cake on his mouth. The rest looked equally defeated, and Lloyd felt like his stomach had been filled with rocks.

The Elemental Master of Amber smiled softly.

“Hey, don’t lose hope guys” she started to say, “If you never gave up on Zane here in the Tournament, and Nya and Kai didn’t give up on their parents, well, there’s still hope for your Sensei to be found” Skylor finished with an encouraging smile.

Lloyd exchanged a look with the other ninja. Skylor was right, they knew that. But even so… the young ninja couldn’t shake the anxious feeling that said _‘You’ll fail, you’ll never have your family back’._

FSM, it was almost like having Morro inside his head again.

He shook his head to clear out the thoughts.

“Thanks, Skylor” Lloyd managed to say, glancing sideways to Kai, who was looking at her with awe, and Nya and Jay giving him a knowing look.

“No problem” the redhead smiled at him, she then turned her attention to the other ninja, her cheeks turning pink once again as her eyes amethyst eyes made contact with the Red Ninja’s before concentrating again, ignoring the slight snickers from Cole and Lloyd, “If anyone else wants a nice considerate advice from me, speak now or forever be-”

“YO, CHEN!”

Skylor was rudely interrupted by a sudden booming voice, and she and her guest’s heads were quick to turn their attention to the direction it came from. In the entrance to the restaurant, stood three men wearing leather jackets with metal accessories and poorly concealed weapons; a metal bat and some loose hanging nunchucks were the most easy to distinguish. The men themselves were tall and nearly identical, only difference was that the one at the left was skinny and bore a look of disdain on his face while the other two were bulky and had a spiteful look in their eye. Lloyd could easily read that their intentions weren’t harmless, and neither did his friends, if the sudden tension in the table was any reference.

“Peine” Skylor greeted with an icy tone, “Kłopot, Vaivata” she gestured with her head at the ones in the left and right respectively, “What do you want?”

“Trouble” Zane whispered.

“We can see that” Kai muttered as he glanced at the White Ninja.

“Yes, but their names literally mean trouble” the nindroid informed, “In french, polish and finnish, respectably”

“Thanks for the language lesson, Zane, but can you scan them to see if they pop out in the NCPD?” Cole asked, “I think I’ve seen them before”

Skylor was still glaring at the three men.

“That’s none of your business, daughter of Chen” Vaivata spoke.

“I believe it is, since I own this establishment” Skylor said, “And I also believe that I kicked you out the last time you were here”

The three men laughed.

“When Master Chen ran this place, we could come and go as we pleased” Peine wined, but his eyes held a malicious look.

“And if you haven’t noticed, my father has been dead for three years, and since I do not affiliate with his cause anymore, you can get out” Skylor hissed.

Just then, Zane hummed.

“They belong to a gang, the have been previously arrested for assault and harassment towards young women and men” he informed to the table. Cole swore quietly.

“You know them?” Jay asked. The black haired ninja shook his head.

“Not really, but one of the members of my dad’s group once got attacked by one of these guys” Cole whispered just as the man in the left took a step forward.

“Listen, Skylor, I always thought you’re a pretty respectful fighter,” Kłopot started to say as he advanced towards the group, “And it would be a shame if we had to fight, just tell us were the kitchen boy is”

The Ninja exchanged a look while Skylor narrowed her eyes, but the way her body tensed didn’t go unnoticed.

“Why should I do that?”

Peine chuckled.

“We’re bored” he answered like it was obvious, “Plus, if you let us play with him, your guests here will be able to come back without fear of colliding with us in the future, right boys?” Kłopot and Vaivata started to laugh again.

Jay snorted, starting to get up from his seat.

“Buddy, don’t you know who we- ouch!”

Thankfully, Nya pinched him down before he could finish the sentence, but the damage was done, the three men centered their attention to them. Kłopot’s gaze went over their faces, eyes narrowing as if it was actually trying to recognize them until he finally rested on Lloyd’s eyes.

“Have we met before?” the man asked, almost looming over the blond in an attempt to intimidate, “You look like someone I should remember by”

Lloyd didn’t reply, opting to keeping his eyes fixed on Kłopot with a defying stare. The man huffed, tearing away his gaze once he realized that Lloyd wasn’t going to answer or back down.

He turned to look back at Skylor.

“Now tell us, were is he? We’ll treat him well, promise” Kłopot spoke with a terrible soothing tone. Skylor glared.

“Get out of my property” she said in a warning tone. From the corner of his eye, Lloyd saw Kai slip under the table, while Skylor’s hands faintly glowed orange.

The men stood their ground.

“You heard the lady” Kai said, having positioned himself beside the redhead, “We don’t want any trouble inside, now do we?”

Peine seemed about to say something, but then he suddenly smiled. He grabbed Kłopot and Vaivata, and pointed with his head towards the street.

“We understand, Miss Chen” Peine said with a fake cheery tone, “We won’t bother here any long”

With that being said, the three men left the restaurant, seemingly in a hurry. Lloyd narrowed his eyes as he saw the men round the corner. Skylor, who was now shaking, followed his gaze.

And went still.

“Skylor?” Kai asked concerned.

She didn’t answer, instead pushing him aside and bolting towards the kitchen. With a shout, Kai and the other ninja followed her.

Lloyd, on the other hand, followed Kłopot, Vaivata and Peine’s direction, rounding the corner of the Noodle House with amazing speed and keeping his steps quiet.

Backing out against the wall, he could hear the three men laughing and taunting someone. Sounds of struggle were easy to make out. Lloyd poked his head out, and had to grip the edge of the wall in order to prevent giving himself away.

The three thugs surrounded the waiter, who was laying on the floor in a fetal position, clutching his abdomen.

“Wh-what have I done to you?” the waiter asked with pained breaths. The men laughed.

“Oh, you haven’t done anything, sweet-cheeks” Peine said as he grabbed the waiter by the back of the shirt, forcing him to stand up, “It’s just that me and my friends here were a little bored, and you looked like a fun toy to-”

“CHEN!” Skylor’s panicked voice interrupted the thug. She was soon joined by the other ninja, who immediately took defense positions. Lloyd, on the other hand, stood in his place slightly shocked.

_“His name is Chen? Like her last name?”_

As he thought it, his light green eyes caught up with Kai’s forest eyes. His friend gave him a slight nod of recognition before centering back to the thugs.

“Let. Him. Go” Skylor spat every word wit venom in her voice. The men laughed.

“Ohhh, would you look at that, she came for your rescue” Vaivata mocked, “What are you going to do? Beat us?” he asked with a fake frighten tone.

“Buddy, there’s literally more of us” Cole pointed out.

“Ahh, but we’re heavier and have weapons!” Kłopot boasted.

“Hardly an advantage, considering the space in this alley” Nya said. It was true, if an actual fight broke out, there would be minimal room. Then again, the ninja were trained for these situations, for them it would be hardly a problem.

Chen (was that really his name?) struggled against his captor’s grip. Kłopot rolled his eyes at his attempts.

“Stand still you little bitch” he told Chen as he gave Skylor and the ninja a sly smile. He then punched Chen in the stomach. The young man doubled in pain and let out a raspy breath.

What happened next was a blur: Skylor angrily charged towards Kłopot and Peine, and Lloyd came out of his hiding spot and leaped over Vaivata, kicking him in the head and slamming him into the wall. The thug’s eyes rolled over his head and slumped against the wall. When Lloyd turned around, he saw that Kai and Cole had subdued Kłopot, who was now whining in the ground, while Peine was now trying back away from a furious Skylor, who had bolts of lightning in her hands, no doubt borrowed from Jay.

“If I see you around again, I won’t be merciful with you or your friends” Skylor threatened. Peine, despite himself, laughed.

“Or what, you’ll call the Ninja Protectors?” he smirked, “My friends say they don’t show up anymore around the city”

Lloyd choose that moment to light up his power in his fists. Behind him, he heard the others doing the same power move. Peine went pale.

“You were saying?” Lloyd asked with a smirk before leaning down to his level, “If I were you, I would listen to her, and that way you can go ‘without fear of colliding with us in the future’?” he recalled. Peine looked between Skylor, Lloyd and the ninja behind them, gulping down and nodding. He quickly got up, gathered his companions, and disappeared giving stumbles into the night.

Skylor quickly gave Jay back the power she had borrowed, before she crouched into the ground next to Chen, who in the struggle had fallen into the ground and was now seated on the floor rubbing his temple and a hand on his stomach.

“Are you okay?” Skylor asked him gently. Chen smiled a little, a small droplet of blood showing at the corner of his mouth, and Lloyd resisted the strange urge to wipe it off.

“I’m fine, they only punched me in the stomach-” the young man started to say, but Skylor cut him off.

“You’re bleeding” she pointed out.

“I may have hit my head against the pavement with the impact?” Chen attempted to offer an explanation with a cheeky grin.

“You also got hit in the stomach, Chen!”

“It barely hurts! I swear!”

“Maybe now, but trust me when I tell you it will hurt like hell tomorrow” Lloyd cut in.

“Yeah, I know” Chen said, but then caught the look of concern Lloyd was giving him, “But, thanks, um… for the save, not the advice, cause I kinda already knew that” he finished saying as he hung his head. Maybe it had been a trick of light from a neon sign that hanged from above the alley, but Lloyd could have sworn his cheeks turned pink. Skylor looked back and forth between both of them.

Kai cleared his throat.

“Um, Skylor?”

“Right” she looked at the ninja. “I’m sorry about how I acted back there, but Chen here is important to me” she chuckled. “Anyway, I don’t think neither of you guys have been properly introduced. Chen, these are Kai Smith, his sister Nya, Jay Walker, Cole Brookstone, Zane Julien and Lloyd Garmadon” Chen nodded in greeting, hazel eyes pausing slightly on Lloyd with some light awe.

“Guys, this is my brother, Chen”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the kind reviews, I'm glad to know you guys are enjoying the story so far.


	4. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"Don't know nothing but I do know that it's a mystery,_   
> _It's only mystery and I like it"_   
>  Christophe Maé (It's Only Mystery)

_“My brother”_

Skylor’s declaration repeated itself in a constant loop in Lloyd’s brain as he prepared himself for bed, alongside the small talk that had ensued right after the Elemental Master of Amber had given a soap-opera revelation.

They all had questions. That was obvious. And they all looked ready to assault the siblings with an interrogation, the Green Ninja himself included. But having looked back at Skylor and Waiter-Chef-Brother-Chen, still on the floor and holding in each other in a protective embrace, he realized that he couldn’t do that to them. It had been a weird night, to an extent (at least for him, anyway), and after fighting three thugs and having avoided a night at a hospital (or somewhere worse), the siblings didn’t deserve a bunch of questions thrown at them.

So before Jay or Kai could open their mouths, Lloyd informed Skylor that he and the Red Ninja would visit again soon, thanked them from the food, wished Chen a fast recovery (in a quick way too, which earned him a look from Nya), and proceeded to usher this brothers and sister out of the restaurant (but not before Cole made a beeline to take the cake away). Once outside and en-route to the _Destiny’s Bounty_ , a debate had erupted between the group of friends, to which Lloyd barely paid attention to as he tried hard to think back to the Tournament of Elements, frantically searching deep inside his memories if Master Chen had mentioned something regarding a son. Or is his own father had mentioned anything of his former power-hungry master mentioning anything regarding a son.

“Maybe he’s an illegitimate child? Adopted, even?” Lloyd heard Zane mention as they neared the ship.

“It could be, I mean he didn’t physically look anything like Master ‘Crazy for the Anacondrai’ like Skylor does” Cole chimed, “On the other hand, even if he isn’t adopted, then psychologically-”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence with an implication that because his father was evil then his children must be” Nya dared as she and Jay quickly looked at Lloyd, who simply kept on walking.

“I wasn’t going to!” Cole replied, putting his hands up in a defense position, “I was going to say that it was a possibility! Not that it was a reality! I didn’t mean to imply that”

“Okay, we get it” Jay said, “But how come we just found out about this?”

“Well, in Skylor’s defense, we never asked” Kai pointed out a bit guilty. “And she’s clearly protective of him too”

Lloyd, despite his distance in the conversation, couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Like you guys with me?” he said as he turned around to look at his friends with a small smirk. Kai, Jay and Cole rolled their eyes, while Nya and Zane shook their heads in amusement.

“Silence, mister ‘I get Constantly Kidnaped Because of my Elemental Power’” Jay spoke with a commanding tone.

“Hey, that’s Master ‘I get Constantly Kidnaped Because of my Elemental Power’ to you” Lloyd had said before they had arrived at the _Destiny’s Bounty_.

And now Lloyd’s mind kept on haunting him with the conversation.

He could understand the guessing Zane had made at the beginning. It was hard to believe Skylor and Chen were related at first, in all honesty, but it was also hard to deny that they did had an air of resemblance, from the facial expressions to the way their lips pressed when they thought about something. How Lloyd had picked up those details despite only knowing the master chef of the noodle house for a couple of minutes remained a mystery to him.

 _“Well, it’s not that you weren’t paying attention to him...”_ a little voice in his brain whispered accusingly as he brushed his teeth, and as much as Lloyd wanted to tell that voice (why did it sound like his bratty kid voice?!) to shut up, he had to reluctantly agree with it.

That had not been the only thing the blond noticed. Chen had done little to defend himself from the thugs, and although yes, the attack had been a surprise and he had definitely been injured by them, when he attempted to get himself out of his captor’s grip, the action had been sloppy. Didn’t Master Chen train his son like he had trained his daughter? It was strange that his child couldn’t at least defend himself properly. That left Lloyd with some uneasiness he didn’t know how to explain.

He fell asleep wondering why.

* * *

 

The next morning, The Ninja woke up when the sky was starting to fade from black to pink. Kai and Lloyd were the only ones still in their pajamas, the others ready to part clad in their respective Gi’s, weapons in one hand and a bag of monthly provisions in the other.

“Jay and I will be searching in the outskirts of the Sea of Sand, hopefully the villages have seen something” Nya said as she finished giving her older brother a hug.

“And Cole and I will check the temples of Spinjitzu” Zane informed Lloyd, who nodded.

“If anything happens, don’t hesitate to give us a call” the Green Ninja said.

“Funny enough, we were going to say the same thing” Jay teased. Kai gawked at him, while Lloyd simply rolled his eyes and Nya face-palmed.

“What, you think Lloyd and I can’t handle it?” Kai dared.

“Nah, we’re just afraid you two are going to set the city on fire” Cole deadpanned before breaking into a grin. Kai lightly punched him in the shoulder before calling out to everyone:

“Okay, group hug everybody!”

They all joined in laughing, and Lloyd couldn’t help but savor on the moment, ignoring the small voice cursing that his family once again would be scattered around the globe.

Once they all broke apart and Nya made Kai and Lloyd promise (again) to look after each other in the meantime, she and Jay summoned their Elemental Dragons, while Zane and Cole took off on their vehicles. The Green and Red Ninja’s watched their friends disappear on the horizon just when the first rays of sun came out.

“Hey, Kai?” Lloyd’s voice came out quiet as he watched the sunrise paint the ocean gold. The hothead hummed and the blond knew he had his attention.

“Do you think they’ll come back with answers this time?” Lloyd wondered, hating the silent implication in his words. Next to him, Kai sighed.

“Something has to come up” the spike-haired ninja said, “Plus, with me staying here for the next two months, I can help you and Misako defend the city and look for some information”

Lloyd’s eyes widened in surprise as he turned to look at Kai,

“You’re staying for two months? I thought you were only staying for the rest of July and by the meeting for next month ends you would be gone?” he asked with some slight confusion. Kai chuckled.

“Well, I want to spend some time with Skylor” he admitted with a faint blush.

“I knew it!” Lloyd cried in victory while Kai groaned.

“Let me guess, you and the others betted that was the reason I was staying?” he asked with a gruff tone. Lloyd laughed.

“Oh, Nya, Cole and I just won ¥5 yen from Jay and Zane” he revealed with a grin. Kai rolled his eyes before adding, “That’s not the only reason I’m staying”

“Oh?” the blond said with curiosity. Kai smirked.

“I also got tasked with finding a birthday present for our squeaky voiced little brother” and then the hothead stared to laugh at the astonished look Lloyd was giving him.

“First of all, my birthday is in September, why would you need to worry about looking for a birthday present? Just give me candy. Second, my voice is not squeaky” Lloyd glared at the still laughing Kai, who managed to sober up a little.

“Oh trust me, you’ll understand once the date comes up” the older teen said as he ruffled the blond’s hair, “And your voice _is_ squeaky”

* * *

 

The rest of the day was spent on training, a late breakfast and of course, a discussion regarding the previous night’s events.

“Personally, I think is weird that Skylor didn’t mention anything regarding a sibling, or Master Chen mentioning having a son” Kai said as he picked up a dumpling. Lloyd nodded in agreement.

“I tried thinking back to the Tournament of Elements, and yeah, it’s weird” he replied, “And he and Skylor seem to be the same age, so maybe… he’s a long-lost twin?” he guessed.

“They barely look alike, Lloyd, aren’t twins supposed to look alike?” Kai questioned. Lloyd shot him an ‘are you kidding me’ look.

“Yeah, _identical_ twins. Fraternal twins don’t necessarily have to look alike. I remember that in Darkley’s there was a pair of fraternal twins, one was pale-blond and short, and the other was tall and had sandy hair” Lloyd explained.

“I see” Kai thought for a moment, “And you don’t think that he may also be adopted or an illegitimate child like Zane was saying yesterday?” he asked, “And what if he’s actually like his father, and the reason that we didn’t know anything about him is because Chen Senior sent him away to be raised by his crazy followers and it’s just waiting for revenge?” he added, raising his hands up in the air.

Lloyd was silent for a few minutes as he took in the theories.

“I doubt he’s adopted, to be honest, but he could be illegitimate” he said after a while. Kai raised an eyebrow.

“But?” he pressed on, knowing that there was something else waiting to be said.

“But I doubt your sudden theory of him waiting to get revenge on us” Lloyd continued, tearing his gaze of Kai and suddenly becoming interested in his breakfast, “It’s just that… I don’t think it fits Chen”

“Appearances can be deceiving, Lloyd” the Red Ninja said softly. Lloyd sighed.

“I know, but…. Call me crazy, but there was something that looked haunted in him, Kai” he revealed as he looked back at his friend, “Like he had seen some pretty bad stuff someone his age shouldn’t have seen, like…” Lloyd trailed off, his eyes suddenly gaining a distant look.

“Like you” Kai finished the sentence for him, understanding. Lloyd chuckled, but the sound lacked any humor, “I was actually going to say like the rest of us”

Kai frowned, opening his mouth to say something, but someone coming into the kitchen caught his and Lloyd’s attention, and the latter tensed up as a woman with grey hair and auburn eyes hidden behind glasses stopped at the kitchen door, a look of surprise clear in her young features.

“Kai, Lloyd! I didn’t know you two were eating here at this time of day. And, Kai? I thought you were leaving?” Misako said as she looked between both young men with some slight confusion. Lloyd avoided saying anything, opting to put a whole dumpling inside his mouth and drifted his eyes to the wall.

“Hi, Misako” Kai greeted as he gave Lloyd a strange look, “And no, I’m staying until September” he informed.

“Is it because of a certain girl?” Garmadon’s wife asked with a knowing look. Kai nodded with a little smile on his face. Misako chuckled as she turned to look at her son, frowning as she and Kai bore witness to him still trying to swallow the whole dumpling without chocking.

“Did you sleep well, Lloyd?” she asked. Lloyd nodded, swallowing his food a bit too quickly.

“Like a rock” he replied curtly before getting up, “I’m going to head out”

He stopped on his way out beside his mother.

“I’m sorry about last night” he said. Misako sighed.

“I’m not going anywhere, Lloyd”

He simply hummed, and went out of the kitchen. But instead of going to the main deck or to his room, Lloyd opted to lean against the wall as he listened to Kai question Misako on his sudden behavior.

“Oh, he and I had a little argument last night, that’s all” Misako’s voice was filled with indifference.

“Is that why you didn’t come to dinner with us?” Kai questioned.

“Not really, I needed to head to the library, where I just found some very interesting texts that could help to find Wu. I simply told Lloyd that and he got mad-”

And that was Lloyd’s queue to stop listening. He dragged his feet to his room to change into civilian clothes while remembering the fight he had with Misako. True, she did told him about finding the texts, but she conveniently forgot to mention to Kai that she was seemingly planning on leaving.

Again.

Lloyd simply hoped he was reading his mother wrong.

* * *

 

New Ninjago City had always been busier during the daytime. Business men and women kept on walking with their phones stuck on their ears, children played and laughed around their mothers and fathers, teenagers goofed with each other in restaurants and coffee shops while ignoring the pile of summer homework next to them. Seeing all of it was surprisingly relaxing for Lloyd. If everything in the city was quiet, then something was wrong, and if things looked a lot more heated on the street, something was probably wrong too. He liked the balance of the two, it brought a small sense of peace.

He was currently walking around the commercial district of Ninjago, his attention sometimes going to the objects on the shopping windows or to his phone. Kai had started texting him a while after he left the _Destiny’s Bounty_ and had gotten into the district.

**Sparky Sparky Boom Man**

 

**-Dude, pls tell me yr around**

**_Commercial district, why?_ **

**-Just wanted to know**

**_What did you do_ **

**-Nothing**

**_Kai_ **

**-…could you pls buy a cook book?**

**_What about the one we had?_ **

**-… it died**

**_What?!_ **

**_Did you kill a book?_ **

**-Kinda**

**-Wanted to cook something for Skylor**

**_…._ **

**-Got mad that I didn’t find anything interesting**

**-And it died**

**_And you didn’t use the internet because..?_ **

**-Just buy a new cook book pls**

**_Fine_ **

Lloyd closed the chat app shaking his head with amusement as he turned around and headed towards the bookshop he had passed a while ago.

 _“Leave it to Kai to prefer reading a book than searching the internet”_ he thought as he walked a bit distractedly, which in turn lead to Lloyd accidentally bumping into someone in the sidewalk, a small “Uff!” making the Green Ninja come back to his senses as he watched the other person in alarm.

“Sorry!” Lloyd said in a little panic, “I wasn’t- Chen?” he couldn’t help the tone of surprise on his voice. The latest topic of conversation was standing in front of him with an equal look of astonishment. Unlike last night, were all he had been wearing was some black shirt, trousers and an apron, Chen now wore white tennis shoes, light blue jeans and a baby blue jacket with white sleeves. Around his neck there was a pair of loose headphones. Lloyd also noticed, now that they were both on standing, that he was a few inches shorter than him.

“Lloyd?” Chen spoke with a tone that read that he couldn’t believe the Green Ninja was in front of him.

“What are you doing here?” they both asked. Their eyes widened when they realized what they had just done, and neither could help but chuckle a little nervously.

“I was taking a relaxing walk, and now I have to run an errand for Kai” Lloyd admitted.

“I managed to convince Skylor to let me out of the apartment, I was just coming back from the park” Chen said with a small smile. Lloyd narrowed his eyes.

“Yeah… uh…shouldn’t you be resting after what happened last night?” he questioned the other teen, who suddenly looked interested in his shoes.

“I got better” was Chen’s taut reply. The sudden nervous tone didn’t go unnoticed, but Lloyd felt that maybe he shouldn’t ask.

“I see” he regarded Chen for a moment, all of the questions he and the other Ninja had wanted to ask suddenly on the tip of his tongue. He forced himself to swallow them down, feeling that maybe he should wait for a better moment to-

“You want to ask me something, don’t you?” Chen’s sudden question took Lloyd completely off-guard. The blond gaped at him.

“How did you know?” Lloyd whispered in amazement. The brunette gave him an amused half smile.

“You have this look on your face” Chen explained, “You’re curious, but also conflicted”

“Well… I don’t want to ask you some _thing_ , I want to ask you a lot of things” Lloyd admitted, rubbing the back of his neck, “No offence, but we really didn’t know you existed until Skylor properly introduced you” he finished a bit awkwardly.

“Can’t say I blame you” Chen said with small smile, “To be honest, I kinda have a few questions too” he confessed.

Lloyd hummed.

“How about this, the book store at the end of the street also has a mini café. Do you want to have our mutual interrogation there?” he asked while his stomach did some funny turns. FSM, was he getting sick?

“Sounds good to me” Chen laughed as he turned around and started to walk to the store.

Lloyd’s stomach continued to do the funny turns as he quickened his pace to catch up with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spot the ATLA easter egg :)


	5. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“So come a little closer,_   
> _There was something I can tell ya”_  
>  Bleachers (Rollercoaster)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 20 questions is a great game for two strangers.
> 
> And Lloyd keeps mistaking the start of a crush as a germ.

“So… how do you want to do this?” Chen asked as a waitress placed his and Lloyd’s orders on the table. They were currently seated in a small secluded area of the coffee shop that resided inside the bookstore, both teens facing each other amidst the comfortable counter and pillows.

“I’m not sure” Lloyd admitted, absentmindedly playing with a sugar package, “To be honest, in my experience, Q & A’s have always involved me or a criminal on a tied up/locked up scenario” he chuckled drily. Chen let out a soft hum.

“Have you ever heard of Twenty Questions?” he inquired, “There are different ways to play, but we can basically engage in one question from me, and then one from you. At the end, the players are supposed to answer all questions” he explained.

Lloyd thought about it, eventually shrugging in agreement.

“Sounds good to me” the blond said, “Do you mind if I go first?”

Chen gave him the same half amused smile from before.

“Someone is eager to have answers” he laughed as he took a sip from his cup. Lloyd smirked.

“What can I say? I’m a natural curious person” he replied before also getting a taste of his drink.

“Didn’t curiosity kill the cat?” Chen asked with a small frown. Now it was Lloyd’s turn to laugh.

“Yeah, but satisfaction brought it back” he shot back, earning a small huff from his companion.

“Well played, Garmadon, well played” Chen said while probing his elbows on the table, joining hands and resting his chin on top, “Fire away”

Lloyd stared at him, unnatural green eyes turning serious. Before he had fallen asleep the other night, there had been a burning question on his mind.

“Is your name really Chen Chen?” he managed to say in the most neutral tone possible, the corners of his mouth trying to form a smile. The teen in front of him stared at him, gaping for a moment before groaning.

“Are you serious? From all the things you could have asked me, that’s the first thing you’re going to go with?!” he asked in the most exasperated tone possible. This time Lloyd couldn’t keep the smile of amusement away any longer.

“As a matter of fact yes, and with that I think you just wasted a question too” he pointed out. Chen rolled his eyes, thankfully not from annoyance, but more in amusement.

“Touché, and yes, to answer your question, my name _is_ Chen Chen” the brunet teen confirmed, “That’s how you know my father was evil: there’s no more wicked deed than giving your second child a terrible name”

The last comment took Lloyd by surprise.

“You… knew your father was evil?” he asked in a cautious tone, knowing from experience it wasn’t an easy thing to talk about. Chen closed his eyes for a moment before answering.

“Not a first” his voice had a small edge on it, “But as the years went by, it became clear that he wasn’t the best father out there” he whispered, his hazel eyes suddenly interested in the bookshelves on the other side of the coffee shop while Lloyd’s felt his stomach fill with unease. From the somewhat vague answer, he could take that Chen really was Skylor’s brother by the same mother and was definitely raised in the same island as her. He wanted to ask more, but he knew better than that. The last thing he wanted to do was to make Chen feel uncomfortable.

Things were silent for a few minutes, until Chen broke it.

“What about you?” at Lloyd’s face of confusion, he added “Your father. Everyone knows that you two had like, a big epic battle of good vs evil. The Green Ninja vs Lord Garmadon”

“Oh” Lloyd muttered, him now being the one becoming interested in his coffee, “It was… complicated, to say the least. Dad… didn’t want to be evil, but he had literal corruption flowing through his veins. Most of the time, he was in control of it, but then… things went south” he said as he absentmindedly played with his sleeves, “Even though he got cast out to the underworld when I was a toddler, he managed to communicate with me through the shadows sometimes. Asked me what I was doing, what were my interests. It didn’t matter he was in a literal different plane of existence, he still cared for me” Lloyd allowed himself to smile at the memories as he gave Chen a small glance. “That battle of good vs evil was caused by a lot of unfortunate events, in which at the end we had no other choice than to fight… early than expected. Anyhow, it was prophesied, so we couldn’t avoid it even if we tried”

Chen’s expression was a mixture of shock and wonder.

“I never knew that… all they teach us in school as that you two basically went mano-a-mano” he mumbled, suddenly looking ashamed. “Sorry I asked-” But Lloyd was quick to interrupt.

“No, don’t be!” he shook his head, giving Chen a small smile of assurance, “It’s okay, plus I started it, didn’t I? I’m not bothered”

Chen blinked at him, but then shook his head, giving away a nervous laugh as he did so.

“Right” he cleared his throat, “I believe is your turn again”

“I’ll go easy on this one: favorite color?” Lloyd asked. Chen stared to laugh more normally.

“Sea green, it’s not quite green, but not quite blue either” he responded, “I suppose yours is green?” he questioned with a crocked eyebrow. Lloyd smiled mischievously.

“Guilty as charged. But I don’t mind black either” he revealed.

“And here I thought the famous Ninja only wore their respective colors” Chen uttered with a small smirk. Ignoring the returning flips from his stomach, the blond chuckled, “Not really, I know for a fact that Nya would rather wear red rather than crimson or light grey. And Zane likes all colors. He really doesn’t have a preference”

“Huh” was all Chen said as he finished drinking his coffee, “I think I’ll continue on the easy questions-”

“I thought it was my turn to ask” Lloyd interrupted slyly, opting to also try and finish his own drink. Chen rolled his eyes. “You get two on the next round” he replied, “Anyway, is it true that you guys never went to school?”

Lloyd neatly chocked on this drink. Now it was his turn to get all the nervous laughter out.

“We did, just never really finished our education at them” he answered, blushing a bit at his behavior, “Kai dropped out to continue the family business, Nya and Jay did graduate thanks to online classes, Cole was homeschooled, but then dropped out of dance school, Zane was homeschooled all his life and I… was on a boarding school and then got homeschooled too” he finished up quite quickly the last part. Not really a lie, even though he had nearly completed his elementary school education before getting kicked out of Darkley’s, and after the stupid Tomorrows Tea incident, Zane and later Nya tutored him on the middle and high-school education.

But of course, he couldn’t tell that to Chen. He’ll probably called him a freak.

“I see. I was homeschooled too, at first” the brunet said.

“You and Skylor?” Lloyd inquired. Chen looked that he was about to say yes, but then seemed to think it better.

“Yes and no” he responded slowly, “My education… had a few bumps in the road, but after Master Chen was defeated, I enrolled myself on Ninjago High”

Lloyd decided not to mention anything regarding the sudden change between ‘father’ and ‘Master Chen’. Somehow he knew that was something he shouldn’t pry on.

“So… you’re still in school?” he opted to ask instead. His companion shook his head.

“I graduated last month, I’m saving some money for college by still working and helping Skylor on the Noddle House” he revealed.

“Oh”

“Yeah”

Lloyd drummed his fingers on the counter for a while, his next question lingering a bit uncertain on his tongue.

“Do you… do you mind if I ask how was high school like?” he finally managed to ask, “I don’t regret being homeschooled… but I’ve been left wondering if the so-called high school experience is really as much as a roller coaster as they say”

Chen looked surprised with the question, but smiled never less.

“It depends on the person. Some will tell you it was the worst years of their lives, other immediately wish to go back to the ‘glory days’. I guess I’m with the crowd that’s ‘lucky’ to experience a bit of both. I got my good memories with some of my friends shenanigans, and I had my moments of frustration with some teachers, bullies, and the soccer team clashing with my cheer practice-”

“Cheer practice? You were a cheerleader?” Lloyd interrupted, slightly wincing when he realized this was his third time cutting Chen off, who simply raised an eyebrow.

“Three questions in a row, you will pay” he playfully pointed out, “Anyway, yes, I belonged to the cheer team. Only guy in it, but I can’t complain, it was fun” he said while giving Lloyd a stare that dared him to say something about it. But the Green Ninja simply gave him a wide smile.

“That’s cool!” he said, meaning it, “You have my respect with that”

Chen gaped at him, his hazel eyes going wide. Lloyd thought he looked hilarious.

“R-really?” he stuttered, “I’ll waste a question demanding to know why, cause I’m having a hard time to believe that you, the Green Ninja, think being a cheerleader is cool” he said, narrowing his eyes in disbelief.

“Well, for starters, you guys have to keep the positivity on games, right? Even when the odds are bad, cheerleaders fight the negative to bring the positive, you keep the hope” Lloyd stared to explain, “I’ve come to admire people who manage to keep others head up high in bad moments” he added as his mind flashed images of him and his friends, always supporting each other during hard times.

“Also, I’ve always thought cheerleaders could be ninjas in disguise” Lloyd chuckled a bit as he cast a glance to Chen, “With all those flips and turns and spins, you could easily learn spinjitzu”

Chen was silent for a while, his eyes looking down, and Lloyd briefly wondered if he had said something wrong.

“You really think so?” he finally spoke with a whisper, hazel eyes looking back at Lloyd’s unnatural green. Chen let out another nervous laugh. “Sorry, I know I’m wasting another question, it’s just that… I don’t think anyone has ever said something like that regarding ninjas and cheerleading” he added as he rubbed the back of his neck.

Was Lloyd imagining it, or was he blushing?

No, it couldn’t be. The coffee shop was a little hot, it was probably just a reaction to the environment.

“Yeah, I do think so” he confirmed. Chen’s face brightened up, like someone had just congratulated him on a good deed.

(And the funny stomach turns were back again. Was he seriously getting sick?)

Lloyd coughed, looking away.

“Um… I think you need one more question before we get back on even ground” he said. Chen nodded.

“Yeah, um…. You asked me about my extracurricular activity, so ninja stuff aside, do you even have time to do other stuff?” he asked tentative. Lloyd blinked, having not expected that question.

“Huh, well… when I’m not training, I do mundane stuff” he admitted, blushing slightly. At Chen’s frown, he rushed to explain, “You know, read a comic-book, play some videogames, annoy Kai, help Jay and Nya annoy Kai, help with chores and complain about it while doing it-”

“So, dork stuff” Chen interrupted with a smirk. Now it was Lloyd’s turn to roll his eyes.

“I suppose” he replied with a shrug and sly smile, “But it’s the closest to a normal life, so I can’t really com-”

“LLOYD!”

Both the blond and Chen nearly jumped out of their seats when Kai appeared beside the table. He had his blazing red jacket on and looked out of breath, sweat dripping on his face.

“I- have been- texting and calling you- for the last ten minutes- wondering where the hell you were!” he huffed as he placed a hand in the counter. Lloyd winced, quickly taking out his phone and realizing that indeed, there were eighteen missed calls and at least forty messages from the hot head. He’d forgotten that he had put his phone on mute.

“Sorry Kai. I bumped into Chen here” he apologized as he motioned to the brunet, who acknowledged Kai with a small hand-wave, “And we decided to play Twenty Questions over coffee here-”

“Whoa, whoa, hold on a second” Kai cut in, giving Lloyd an exasperated look, “I asked you to buy me a book and instead you end up getting a coffee date?!”

“It’s not a date!” both Chen and Lloyd spurted, going red all over the face.

“We- we were just hanging out” the blond explained, stumbling over his words for a moment, “Asking each other questions, clearing some stuff out, that’s all”

Kai stared at him before turning to look at Chen, who sunk on his seat under the Red Ninja’s fiery gaze.

“So, he’s not evil? Doesn’t want to continue daddy’s business to steal elemental powers and turn himself into a Serpentine?” he questioned. Chen’s eyes went wide and his face went slightly pale.

“Why would I do that” Chen muttered, voice wavering slightly while Lloyd looked at Kai, shocked.

“No, he’s not, Kai, jezz!” the Green Ninja scowled, “What is wrong with you?” he demanded as he glared at his best friend, who winced once he realized what he’d done. Kai turned to look at Chen, who in turn was now too busy looking at his empty cup of coffee, shoulders and jaw tense. To Lloyd, he looked like he wanted to avoid either lashing out to the Red Ninja or have a breakdown over being accused of being like the father he clearly didn’t have a good history with.

“I’m sorry, it’s just that… I get a little protective of Lloyd” Kai apologized. Chen raised his head a bit, wariness clear in his glazed eyes. Kai tried to give him a small smile to mean he hadn’t really meant the harm, before turning to look at Lloyd.

“I got worried” the spiky-haired teen said. The blond let out a sigh.

“I know”

“You weren’t answering anything, so I just assumed… you know” Kai mumbled. Lloyd nodded.

“I know” he repeated. Kai looked around the shop for a bit before turning to Lloyd.

“I’ll go buy the damn cook-book. And maybe I’ll order some coffee. And you two…” he waved his hands at Chen and Lloyd, “Can finish whatever you two were doing”

And with that being said, he left towards the book store part of the building. Lloyd watched him go, still slightly angry over how Kai had over-reacted, but then again, it was Kai, he had meant well but nearly caused a scene. He turned to look at Chen, who had turned back to staring into the empty cup.

“So… does he always show up like that?” Chen asked with a thin voice.

“Are you asking as part of the game?” Lloyd replied with some humor in an attempt to lift of some tension. To his relief, Chen let out a shaky laugh.

“Yeah… and you lose a question too” he smiled to Lloyd, who chuckled in return.

“That’s fair. And no, Kai doesn’t usually barges into places like that, he’s just… protective. And being a hot head and being protective aren’t always a good combination, but he means well” Lloyd explained. He studied Chen for a moment, who was still a little pale looking.

“Are you okay?” the blond couldn’t help the question from escaping, knowing full well that despite the Q & A, he and Chen were basically still strangers.

 _“But are you really now? Strangers don’t discuss evil daddy problems”_ the small little voice asked as Chen spoke.

“To be honest, I got a little… freaked out. Being accused of being like Master Chen is something Skylor and I are kinda used to” Chen revealed. The Green Ninja pursed his lips into a thin line, concerned that there were actual people out there that accused the siblings of being just like their father.

He got caught on the thought that he nearly missed the brunet talking again, “Plus, regarding Kai, Skylor says he’s like a marshmallow, but he looked like a raging volcano to me” Chen confessed, smiling a little. Lloyd blinked, a small smile forming on the corners of his lips.

“That has to be the best descripting of Kai ever. Please tell your sister she’s a genius” he declared before ultimately laughing, Chen joining soon after.

“Okay, I got to ask, was the cook book the errand that you were referring to before we headed here?” the hazel eyes teen asked once they had calmed down.

“Yep” Lloyd replied, “There was a small incident with the one we had” he added.

“Who uses cook books now anyway?” Chen asked.

“Kai, since he hates relying on the internet” Lloyd responded.

“You’re kidding”

“I wish”

They fell to a small, yet comfortable silence. Looking at Chen, Lloyd suddenly remembered he had a more burning question regarding the brunet that had kept wondering his mind the last night.

“Hey, Chen?” he asked. The teen looked at him, and Lloyd’s face grew serious, “I know that our first questions were a bit personal, and it was a little uncomfortable, and I’m sorry to ask another one again, but I need to know” he leaned on the table, looking his eyes with Chen’s, “Do you know proper self-defense?”

“Oh” Chen’s shoulders slumped as he stopped facing Lloyd, “I… don’t” he admitted with a sigh, “Crazy, right? The son of the criminal Master Chen and a former elemental master, and brother to another fighter, doesn’t know how to fight for the life of him” he chuckled, and Lloyd was quick to notice that it was devoid of humor. “Sorry if you expected a master of martial arts” Chen muttered.

“I didn’t, I kinda figured” Lloyd admitted, Chen shooting his head up in surprise, “Last night, when you were attacked… I saw your attempt to escape. No offence, it was horrible”

“Oh” Chen slumped once again. Lloyd smiled.

“But,” he paused a little bit for dramatic effect, sensing he still had Chen’s attention, “If you want, I could teach you”

Chen gaped at him, and for a moment Lloyd feared he had broken him.

“You… you would? Don’t you have to… save Ninjago City and stuff?” he questioned with a whisper, apparently still not quite believing the Green Ninja’s proposition.

“Well, yes, but Kai can help me with that” Lloyd replied, “And I got free time when there’s no eminent danger to Ninjago, so it doesn’t bother me”

Chen seemed to think about it for a moment, but just when he was about to speak again, Kai came back to their table, face grim.

“Sorry to interrupt, again” he said as he turned to Lloyd, “We have to go”

“Where’s the trouble this time?” the blond said without missing a beat.

“Ronin” was all Kai replied. Lloyd frowned.

“Is he _the_ trouble or is he _in_ trouble?” he inquired. Kai simply shrugged.

“I honestly don’t know man, all Pixal said was ‘Trouble with Ronin’, so I guess we’ll find out once we get there” he informed. Looking over to Chen, he added, “I’ll met you outside”

He soon left them, Lloyd giving Chen an apologetic look as he got up from his seat. He looked at the brunet over his shoulder.

“I’ll leave you to think about it?” he asked, expecting Chen to nod or somehow agree. Instead, he got up from his seat as well and faced Lloyd with determination.

“I want to learn” he revealed, “But… uh…. As cool looking you ninjas are, I don’t really want to become one” he laughed, rubbing once again the back of his neck. Lloyd found himself laughing alongside him.

“Alright” he said. He was about to start walking, but then an idea hit him and he turned around back to the table and grabbed a napkin. Looking around the coffee shop for a moment to make sure no one else was giving them attention, Lloyd placed his hand over the simply napkin. A fain green glow enveloped the simple paper for a small moment, and once Lloyd took off his hand, a phone number engraved in gold and green was now part of the napkin. He turned to look at Chen, who was staring at him and the napkin with awe.

“Sorry, I didn’t have a pen” Lloyd said sheepishly as he handed Chen the paper, who took it with some delicacy, as if he was afraid the napkin would crumble under his touch, “Text me when you want to meet up?” he said a bit shyly, briefly wondering if this was really good idea.

But Chen’s bright face and somewhat eager nod destroyed that thought.

“I will”

And with that said, Lloyd gave him a smile and ran to the exit to meet Kai, a strange light feeling taking over his chest as he did so.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm aware they haven't finished the 20 questions game, but don't worry, the remaining 10 questions will make their way into the story ;)


	6. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“But with you, I feel again”_  
>  One Republic (Feel Again)

“Almost everything ruined, when I find who’s responsible-!” Ronin kept angrily muttering as Kai and Lloyd took in the sight in front of them. The pawn shop looked like it had been briefly visited by a tornado: artifacts lay scattered and/or broken on the floor, shelves and tables were upside down, and broken glass glistered with the setting afternoon sun. The two ninjas exchanged a look.

“Ronin, what exactly happened here?” Kai asked as Lloyd carefully made his way further into the shop to inspect. Destroyed weapons, armors, crystals.... even an old kimono dress were all the greeted him.

“I don’t know!” yelled the ex-thief as he threw his hands up in the air, “One moment I’m attending a customer, and then I feel like someone threw a bucket of ice-cold water on me, and then there’s just a complete mess and almost everything in here is broken!”

Lloyd turned from studying some broken armor pieces that seemed to belong to a Stone Warrior to look at the one-eyed man.

“By the looks of it, someone was after something in the shop” the Green Ninja said, “Have you noticed anything missing?” he asked.

“And do you know who could have done it? We know you have a list of enemies” Kai added. Ronin thought for a moment as his eye momentarily scanned the room.

“Not really, I still haven’t made a list of the lost inventory, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some armor and crystals were missing” he admitted. Lloyd’s eyes briefly went to the supposed Stone Warrior armor, looking back at Ronin with a raised eyebrow. The bounty hunter chuckled.

“Relax kid, it’s a fake” he waved a dismissing hand at the broken warrior, “If the idiot who broke into here stole one of them, he or she or them will be really disappointed. As for my enemies, they know better than just break into here and destroy everything”

“Is that so?” Kai asked as he crossed his arms over his chest. Ronin nodded.

“Take it from an ex-thief and a bounty hunter. Eventually you learn to notice if your enemies were behind this or not, and if they did, they know I won’t waste any time in exacting revenge” Ronin smiled as if he was suddenly remembering the good old days as both ninjas exchanged a slight uncomfortable look.

“What about recent objects in the shop, Ronin? Have you gotten anything that might be necessary dangerous?” Lloyd inquired. “I saw some broken and expensive looking crystal in the back”

Ronin scratched his head in though.

“I don’t think so, I happened to found those crystals years ago in some abandoned mines. They’re more sought by fancy people and those in charge of the Royal Family’s jewelry” he answered. Lloyd and Kai went silent for a while.

“What about that feeling you experienced?” the Red Ninja asked. To their surprise, the bounty hunter shuddered.

“In all honesty? I don’t think I want to experience that ever again. It was like someone had replaced my bones with literal ice, and I didn’t know what was happening, and then, everything is a mess”

Lloyd tensed up at the description. He knew that feeling.

Darkness.

A constant feeling of weakness.

Of being helpless in your own body.

Being responsible of actions you didn’t knew you did.

It was something he didn’t want to experience ever again.

“A ghost” he whispered, “A ghost made this, using you as a vessel. There can’t be any other explanation, Ronin. Trust me”

The other men in stared at the Green Ninja with concern, while said ninja tried his best to repress some unpleasant memories.

“So, you’re saying that a ghost possessed my body and made me trash my shop?” Ronin asked for confirmation. Lloyd nodded.

“I know it sounds unlikely, with the destruction of the Cursed Realm, but it’s possible someone escaped” he explained. Kai hummed.

“And the last Day of the Departed, a lot of freaky stuff occurred regarding ghosts” he added, “So Lloyd may be right, Ronin”

The bounty hunter scratched the back of his head, looking around. But Lloyd could tell that even he was trying not to freak-out at the moment.

“To be honest, of all the people that have gotten on my bad side, to do something like this from the depths of the great beyond sounds like Master Chen” Ronin admitted, making both Kai and Lloyd give each other a look, “But the guy is as good as dead-”

“Thanks to my sister” Kai said.

“-So I think I can sleep tonight” Ronin finished saying with some relief in his voice, “If he was back, me and his children would be sleeping with the fish already” he laughed.

The mention of the Chen children caught the two Ninja’s interest.

“Oh, so you knew of Chen Jr?” Kai asked. Ronin nodded, a small smile on the curve of his lips.

“Good kid, has gone through some stuff, I’m not surprised that your girlfriend is protective of him” he said, ignoring the small ‘yet’ from Kai as he looked at Lloyd, “If I were honest, he kind of reminds me of you”

“Me?” Lloyd repeated, confused, “I mean, yeah, we both had the ‘My father is evil’ part on our childhoods, but that’s it… right?”

Ronin gave him a small frown.

“Ah, young Garmadon, I know what that kid has seen. And he and you are quite similar in one thing”

In a second he had his lips on Lloyd’s left ear, whispering something that would leave the young Ninja confused for months to come.

“Destiny has been a bitch to both of you”

* * *

 

Later at night, during a late diner that consisted of leftovers that were still edible in the fridge, Lloyd picked at his food without interest, his mind elsewhere as it was trying to figure out the whole encounter with Ronin. If he was honest with himself, he didn’t want to fight a ghost again. Not if Cyrus Borg or Nya or Jay managed to invent some sort of anti-possession belt. Lloyd knew he was probably being stupid, but after the whole ordeal with Morro… an involuntary shudder ran through his body.

“Wanna talk about it?” Kai asked, having already finished his food as he looked at the blond with concern. Lloyd let out a small sigh.

“I don’t know if there’s much to talk” he said, “Ronin said it himself, he has a lot of enemies. I could have been wrong about the ghost thing”

“Somehow I doubt it” his friend spoke in a soft tone, “After the last Day of the Departed, it could be possible. And you recognized the possession symptoms”

Lloyd didn’t answer, opting to continue playing with his food. Noticing that he wasn’t going to get anything else from him, Kai let out a sigh of his own.

“So, before we went to Ronin’s, what hold you back in the café with Chen Jr.?” he inquired. Lloyd felt himself smile slightly, silently thanking the topic change.

“I offered to train him” he simply said, eyeing Kai for any possible reaction. He did not disappoint: the Red Ninja’s forest green eye’s nearly popped out.

“You _what_?!” he said in a voice that came out too squeaky, “And what did he say?!”

Lloyd smiled.

“I offered to train him… and he accepted” he simply answered. His friend continued to gape at him long enough to make Lloyd feel a bit uncomfortable.

“Listen, it wouldn’t be the first time. I sometimes helped Nya with her powers, and you know I sometimes visit Dareth to help on the dojo with the kids” he doesn’t know what really prompted him to defended his decision, but the sudden understanding on Kai’s face made it worth it.

“I see” he muttered, eyeing Lloyd with a look the young man couldn’t place before smiling, “I think that would make Sensei Wu proud of you. And your dad too”

“Thanks, Kai” Lloyd smiled in gratitude, pushing his plate towards his friend, “I’m not that hungry, so enjoy”

“You’re the best Master out there” Kai laughed before attacking the food. Lloyd simply shook his head in amusement before heading towards his room, passing alongside his mother’s on his way, but a small peak made him stop before he slowly retraced his steps to fully examine the room.

Misako’s room was full scattered of boxes, some with old parchments and some others with ancient looking books that Lloyd was fairly sure that belonged in the Ninjago Museum. His mother was seated on the bed, a frown on her face as she examined what looked to be a map of the outskirts of Ninjago.

“Er… Mother?” Lloyd tentatively asked. Misako paid no attention to him, her gaze still on the map. Her son tried again, this time with a stretched out, “Moooootheeeeer”

“What is it, Lloyd?” Misako asked in a huff as she put the paper down.

“I was wondering what was all this doing here” Lloyd said as he gestured to the mess in the room. Misako eyed the boxes for a moment before her brown eyes returned to her son.

“Research” she simply answered, “For possible places I-we could look for Wu” she elaborated. Lloyd narrowed his eyes at her small slip, but before he could even open his mouth to mention it, Misako had gotten up from her bed and nearly crushed Lloyd in a bear hug that he awkwardly returned.

“I love you so much, you know that, right?” Misako whispered in his ear as she lightly stroke his blond locks. Lloyd simply nodded on her shoulder, not daring to say anything anymore. His mother then pulled back and gently pushed him out of the room, closing the door once he was out, leaving Lloyd alone in the hall.

Pressing his lips into a thin line as he casted one more look at the closed door, Lloyd resumed his way into his room. He didn’t like how his mother was acting lately, she seemed to be getting distant and more distant as the months went by. The small fight they both had the other day had been regarding that: Misako hadn’t seem to care that some crime gangs were taking away some of Lloyd’s sleeping schedule, and when Lloyd had asked her for some help, she had insisted that she was way more busy than him, and told him that her research could be leading her out of the city sooner than later and-

A small flicker of the lights in his room took Lloyd of his thoughts, and he forced himself to take a few calming deep breaths, not feeling up to change the light bulbs. With a small sigh, he dropped on his bed facing the ceiling.

“Come on, Lloyd, it’s not worth thinking about it” he muttered to himself just as a small notification came from his phone, “She’s just busy” he kept on saying as his hand blindly reached for the electronic device and he held it in front of him and read the message.

** Unknown Number **

**-Hi**

**-It’s Chen**

 

Lloyd nearly dropped the phone, momentarily forgetting his small frustration as he quickly typed a reply.

 

**_Hey Chen_ **

**_You got home alright?_ **

 

He immediately regretted sending that last message. When Chen replied with three laughing emojis, Lloyd released a breath he didn’t even know he was holding.

 

- **If Skylor wasn’t in front of me, I’d say you swapped phones with her.**

 

Lloyd laughed at the reply.

 

**_Sorry_ **

**-Relax about it, I’m used to overprotectiveness**

**_Another we happen to agree on_ **

**-I noticed**

**-But thankfully I only have an overprotective sister. For what I’ve hear from Skylor, you seem to have a whole team**

 

Now Lloyd couldn’t help but snort. Well, he wasn’t wrong.

 

**-Soooo, overprotective people aside**

**-I originally texted to talk about our agreement?**

**-I now have free afternoons all week**

 

Lloyd’s eyes widened in surprise as he texted back.

 

**_Really?_ **

**_Did you and Skylor talk about it or..?_ **

**-Nope (but she’s cool about it)**

**-And it’s a funny story, actually**

**_Humor me_ **

**-Patience young padawn**

**_If you’re training under me, you’re the padawan_ **

**-Man, you really are a dork**

**_You started it_ **

**-True**

**-Back to the main story**

**-Skylor hired a friend of hers**

**-I think she’s an elemental master**

**-Does the name Tox sound familiar?**

 

Lloyd gaped at the screen. It was almost like someone had written in a ‘Scroll of Destiny’ (he knew they weren’t real but by the way his life used to be going it might as well do) or something in order for that to happen. What were the odds?

 

**_Yeah, I remember Tox, you’ll like her_ **

**_And the whole thing?_ **

**_Quite the coincidence_ **

**-I know**

**-But I’m not really complaining**

**_Me neither_ **

 

He allowed himself a small smile as he send the last message.

 

**_So, you got free afternoons_ **

**_And thankfully, so do I_ **

**_Unless there’s crime_ **

**_Or someone wants to conquer Ninjago_ **

**-Yezz Batman**

**_Seriously how am I the dork_ **

**-You got the vibes**

**_Rude_ **

**-I’m not rude**

**-I’m a crowd pleasing, cheer yelling,**

**stunt building, toe touching, hand**

**clapping, big smiling cheerleader**

 

Kai busted into Lloyd’s room after the latter basically exploded in laughter and was rolling in his bed.

“FSM!” was all the blond managed to gasp between laughs.

“Uh… what?” the very confused ninja muttered as Lloyd calmed down and grabbed his phone, which had been tossed between the pillow.

“Nothing” Lloyd waved at him in dismissal, but a grin betrayed the casualness in his tone, “I just read something funny” he said. Kai looked at him, then at the green-case covered phone, and then back at him.

“Oookay, if you need me, I’ll be out patrolling” Kai announced, “Say hi to Chen Jr for me” he told Lloyd before he left the room.

Lloyd blinked. How did Kai knew…?

Shaking his head, he returned his attention to the phone, typing out his reply.

 

**_My stomach and ribs would like to inform you_ **

**_That they hate you_ **

**-How dare you take my sass for humor**

 

Lloyd let out a small huff.

 

**_I take all sass as humor_ **

**_But back to the main point_ **

**_I know a guy that can lend us his dojo for a while_ **

**_Since you’re a cheerleader, I trust_ **

**_that you’ll come stretched already?_ **

**-No problem at all**

**_Great_ **

**_Meet me at ‘Grand Sensei Dareth’s Mojo Dojo’_ **

**_It’s a few blocks away from the noddle house_ **

**_2:00 pm?_ **

**-2:00 pm**

 

A strange wave of relief ran through Lloyd’s body. Somehow the assurance that Chen would actually be there felt… good.

 

**-Lloyd?**

**_Yeah?_ **

**-Thank you**

A few seconds passed, in which Lloyd stared at the words with some slight confusion. It then hit him that maybe, just maybe, Chen was actually graceful that someone wanted to teach him some self-defense. But the small ‘why?’ that nagged Lloyd’s mind the last 24 hours came back.

If he was Master Chen son, why wasn’t he trained in martial arts like Skylor did?

He didn’t want to ask directly. Based on Chen’s reactions to his father and his lack of knowledge in defense and offense in their conversation in the coffee-shop, Lloyd could only conclude that it was something that Chen would have to trust in him on his own.

**_Don’t thank me yet_ **

**_But_ **

**_You’re welcome_ **

Soon after sending it, and quickly calling Dareth to inform him about the situation, Lloyd went to bed.

(But not before saving Chen’s number as _‘Chen the Cheerleader’_ )

* * *

 

The next morning went just like the other, with Kai and Lloyd training with both weapons and elemental powers and eating brunch provided from takeout.

The only difference this time, is that Misako didn’t join them.

Lloyd tried not to think of it. He had better things in his mind at the moment…

“Not that I don’t trust Tox, but I think I prefer Chen Jr cooking my food in Skylor’s Noodle House”

…. Like trying to convince Kai that Tox was not going to kill him. He had been pretty chill about the fact that Lloyd would now be spending the afternoons training Chen compared to the other day.

“Why is that even worrying you? Skylor is the one who likes to cook your favorite noodles, anyway” Lloyd pointed out as he emerged from his room with a gym bag.

“I know that!” Kai snapped, “I’m just a little worried, that’s all” he admitted.

“You don’t say” Lloyd muttered, “Are you worried that Tox is going to steel Skylor away from you? Cause I’m sure that’s called jealousy” he said.

“No!” Kai smacked Lloyd in the arm, “I mean, I know Skylor is bi, but I’m not worried about Tox stealing her!” he paused at Lloyd’s raised eyebrow, sighing, “Maybe I’m a little, stupidly jealous”

“Well, you like Skylor, and she likes you” Lloyd gave his best friend a sly smirk, “I think this is the part in which you two talk about it, don’t you?”

Kai huffed, but didn’t disagree. Lloyd smirked.

“Since I’m meeting up with Chen, why don’t you try one of those recipes in the new cook-book, huh? Wasn’t that the original reason why we needed a new one?” he proposed. Kai smiled gracefully at Lloyd.

“I’m supposed to act as the older brother here, the advice stuff is my thing” he said. Lloyd shrugged.

“Little brothers can give good advices too” he replied before heading towards the exit and venturing to the streets of Ninjago City, where the warm summer sunlight accompanied him all through his way to the dojo. But as he approached, Lloyd couldn’t help the small anxious feeling in his stomach. It was sort of ridiculous, really. Why would he feel anxious over training someone?

“Ah! Green Ninja! Lloyd!” Dareth greeted him with his usual laid back attitude as soon as Lloyd steeped into the dojo. Behind the self-proclaimed Brown Ninja, was Chen, who had a look of amusement on his face.

“Hey, Dareth” Lloyd acknowledged with a polite smile, “Thanks, again, for letting us use the place”

“Yeah, no problem” the older man said as he turned to Chen, “I’ll be in the back if you two need me”

And soon both teens were left alone, Lloyd taking advantage of the small silence to study Chen: aside from the still amused look on his face, he had come dressed in comfortable training clothes.

“I take that you were left alone with Dareth for a while, didn’t you?” Lloyd couldn’t help but ask. His companion nodded, the corners of his mouth going up a tiny bit.

“Yeah, he sure has… a special attitude” he said. Lloyd laughed.

“That’s Dareth to you” he replied, “He’s been like that since I meet him”

Chen chuckled, shaking his head. He stopped, a curious look on his face as he starred at Lloyd.

“Don’t Ninja use their uniforms to train?” he asked, eyeing the training joggers and hoodie that Lloyd currently wore. The blond shook his head. “Not today” he said, “I mean, we do, but it’s mostly for aesthetic” he revealed, giving Chen a wink, who simply stood speechless, as if Lloyd had suddenly revealed the secret for eternal life. The Green Ninja chuckled a bit nervously.

“So,” he said as he clapped his hands to hide the sudden anxious tremor in them, “Shall we begin?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I give you guys your first hint to our antagonist in this chapter, I think it's quite easy to figure out.


	7. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Starting right now I'll be strong,_   
> _I'll play my fight song”_  
>  Rachel Platten (Fight Song)

Lloyd decided to start by asking Chen to perform some basic flips and gymnastic moves associated with cheerleading in order to properly see what the other teen was capable off and decide what to teach him first. Chen didn’t disappoint, he had been quick to come out of his small astonishment regarding the Ninja’s wardrobe choices and had smoothly performed front flips, backflips, cartwheels and jumps without nearly breaking a sweat, the moves clearly memorized after being performed various times. Once he was finished, he had turned to look at Lloyd with an expectant look on his face.

“I’ll admit I’m impressed” Lloyd said with a smile, “You already have an advantage for the lessons, those moves aren’t easy to master at first”

“Speaking from experience?” Chen asked with a small smirk. The blond rolled his eyes, but his smile didn’t waver.

“Maybe” he answered before focusing on his next words, “Now, when it comes to fighting, one should never be keen on making trouble on purpose. Any type of martial art or fighting style is taught with the intention on knowing how to pick your own fights” Lloyd started to explain to Chen, who was now listening to his every word with interest.

“Now, like I said before, you have the advantage on agility-” and in a flash, Lloyd had closed the distance between them and was now holding Chen’s right wrist by the brunet’s back. The only thing the cheerleader had managed to say had been a small gasp of surprise. “-But you lack the reflexes” Lloyd finished as he let Chen go, who backed away almost immediately as he rubbed his wrist with a small glare and a curious look on his eyes. The Green Ninja gave him an apologetic smile.

“How did you figure that out from the moves I made?” Chen asked.

“Your moves were coordinated” Lloyd informed him as he started to walk around the dojo, “Smooth? Yes. Perfectly executed? Also yes. But it was because you had them memorized from a routine. Your lack of reflex is showed in that, you’re too focused on the routine that you ignore any possible danger. When you finished, you looked at me, expecting a praise in your ability that you didn’t react when I subdued you” he turned to stare at Chen, who had lowered his gaze into the ground, his lips on a thin line. Lloyd felt somewhat bad for the criticism he had just dropped on him.

“But” he started to say, feeling much better when Chen’s eyes looked at him with some surprise, “We can improve that”

“How? Don’t tell this is the part in which you start throwing things at me” Chen said with some slight panic. Lloyd raised an eyebrow.

“Uh… no” he slowly replied, frowning slightly when the other teen visibly relaxed, “I was actually going to suggest something else” he added. “What I’m going to teach you today, is how to forget about routine. Forget being mechanical. When someone is attacking you, is vital to pay attention to your surroundings and your attacker” Lloyd started to explain.

“Like how you and your friends took out the thugs in the alley?” Chen inquired, head tiled to the side. Lloyd nodded, managing to avoid pointing out that he looked like a cat.

“Exactly, although, without the ninja moves” he said with a small chuckle as he remembered the brunet’s only restriction in regards to their agreement. “So, first, let’s start with open space attacks…”

Five minutes later, Lloyd had to give credit to Chen. The cheerleader was a fast learner. He repeated all of the moves Lloyd showed him with little problem, the Master simply correcting the positioning of his elbows or feet every once in a while. Sometimes, just to see if he was paying enough attention to his surroundings, Lloyd would a punch or a kick out of nowhere, and Chen managed to doge them all quite successfully.

“Hitting the neck is a good way to give yourself time to escape” Lloyd was explaining ten minutes later, “It’s a great stunning technique” he said as he demonstrated the move. But just as he did, Chen grabbed his wrist, twisting slightly and sending both of them into the ground.

“I didn’t plan that right” Chen muttered as he let the blond’s wrist go. Despite the surprise attack, Lloyd couldn’t help but laugh at Chen’s confusion.

“That’s because your foot was on the way. Next time, I suggest using it to make my fall easier by hooking my knee” he said. Chen frowned.

“I surprise attacked you and you’re giving me advise on how to do it better?” his tone was all exasperated. Sitting up, Lloyd gave him a small shrug.

“My dad and my uncle always agreed that you can learn from a mistake and guide people through their own mistakes” he reveled as he smirked down to Chen, who gave out a little “Oh”. Lloyd offered his hand as he got up.

“Come on, let’s go again”

Chen attempted a few more times to surprise Lloyd with an attack, each failing and ending with Lloyd offering a better advice on how to execute the movement. He managed to take down Lloyd after he got momentarily distracted as he blocked a punch, and the brunet successfully hooked his foot on his knee and before Lloyd knew it, he was face down on the floor with his left arm being secured by Chen.

“Hey, I did it!” the brunet exclaimed with some shock in his tone, “I actually did-UF!”

And now Lloyd, having taken advantage that Chen’s hold had gone soft in his excitement, had twisted himself free and tackled the other young man into the ground, sitting on top of him and holding both hands down.

Chen gaped at him. Lloyd couldn’t help but smirk.

“You were saying?” he asked with an innocent voice. Chen glared.

“You cheated”

“Did not”

“Did too!”

“Did not!”

“Yes you did, Garmadork” Chen bit back before smirking, “Unless you wanted an excuse to straddle me…?” Lloyd rolled his eyes at the implication, but decided to humor the cheerleader.

“And then what, have a full on make-out session?” he replied with a matching smirk as he ignored the sudden hotness on his cheeks.

“What would the public say?” Chen exclaimed rather dramatically as he raised his head from the ground.

“The Green Ninja found kissing a citizen! Are they lovers or just friends who are really close with each other?” Lloyd adapted the voice of a reporter who was having a field day with the news as Chen exploded with laughter, the blond soon joining him as he got off from the position.

“Okay, I think that’s- that’s enough for today” Lloyd declared after slightly calming down. Chen, despite still giggling over the ordeal, nodded in agreement. Both of them got up and got hold of their respective possessions, a sudden awkward silence taking over the dojo.

“Um… same time tomorrow?” Lloyd asked in an effort to break it.

Chen smiled, “Same time tomorrow. And this time, I will manage to beat you”

Lloyd crossed his arms over his chest.

“Is that a challenge?” he inquired with an amused smile. Chen blinked, probably not expecting the comment, but he didn’t look like he was backing off either.

“Maybe” he admitted with flushed cheeks before walking towards the exit, “See you tomorrow, Lloyd!”

The blond smiled.

“See you tomorrow”

* * *

 

** Chen the Cheerleader **

**-I just realized something**

**_What?_ **

**-We never finished 20 Q/A**

**-We still got 10 each**

**_…so you wanna continue now or…?_ **

**-Nah, it’s best face to face**

 

“Man, I’ve never seen you so glued to your phone before”

Kai’s voice broke Lloyd’s gaze from the screen. They were currently taking a break from their morning training, both of them a little sore from the other night, in which they had gone on patrol and managed to stop three robberies in the lower districts.

“I think you’re exaggerating” Lloyd replied as he stiffed a small yawn. Kai simply stared at him with a deadpan look.

“Lloyd, you’ve been glued to it since you and Chen Jr stared talking weeks ago” Kai said.

“It’s only been a week, Kai” Lloyd corrected, “And he likes to text a lot”

But Kai was shaking his head.

“Nu-huh, don’t give that excuse, Skylor mentioned the same thing about him on our last date!”

 

**_Apparently_ **

**_Skylor and Kai gossip about us_ **

**_When they announced that they were now together_ **

**_I did not see this one coming_ **

**-THANK FSM**

**-YOU TOO HAVE BEEN SUFFERING THIS**

**_We’re not escaping this_ **

**_Are we_ **

**-Not unless we move to an unrecorded island in the sea**

**_… I happen to know one_ **

* * *

 

Two weeks in, they finally resumed Twenty Questions... more or less. It had been brought up in the middle of a break between the lessons.

“Cats or dogs?” Chen had kicked off with a small smile after a stray feline had somehow made its way into the dojo and Lloyd had ushered it out gently with some snacks and water.

“As you can see, cats. But dogs are cool too, same with dragons” Lloyd admitted.

“Wait… dragons? I know elemental masters can conjure up those, I’ve seen Skylor do it, but you’re talking like you had a dragon as a pet” Chen said dumbfounded.

“Because technically speaking, I did” Lloyd reveled. “It was called the Ultra-Dragon, gigantic, with four heads. That dragon was the evolved form of the four original elemental dragons. He only responded to me, my dad and my uncle”

“What happened to him?” Chen inquired with curiosity, his head tiled slightly to the side.

(Damn it, Lloyd was growing quite fond of that look)

“He went back to its original realm. I haven’t seen it since then” Lloyd said, looking over the window, “How about you? Any pets?”

“No, my mom was allergic to cats and dogs and father… wasn’t an animal lover” Chen shook his head. “After Skylor took over the restaurant, money became a bit of an issue, so we didn’t dwell on it”

“I see…” Lloyd trailed off, “Hey, I never asked, you said you were saving for college, what do you want to major on?” he asked. To his surprise, Chen looked away, suddenly becoming quite interested in playing his fingers. One of his nervous habits, as Lloyd had come to learn.

“You’re going to laugh” he said.

“I promise I’m not” Lloyd assured. Chen stayed silent for bit longer, eyeing Lloyd for a moment before giving in.

“Art Studies” he reveled with some hesitation.

“Why would I laugh at that?” Lloyd asked, incredulous, “There’s no reason to laugh at that!”

“You…really think so? You don’t think it’s dumb and it will make me end on the streets?” Chen asked softly, eyes shining. The blond nodded.

“Yeah! I mean, I suck at art, but even I know to appreciate it. And dumb? Are you kidding me? I’ve seen people pour their souls into the canvas, and out comes a master piece!” he exclaimed, throwing his hand into the air for emphasis. A thought hit him.

“And I just realized, we just wasted a question each on that” he mused. Chen chuckled.

“After those answers, I don’t mind” he said. “Thanks… Garmadork” he uttered a bit shyly.

They would have continued, but just then an explosion was heard on the distance, followed by an alert on his phone. They both parted ways in a hurry, but not before Lloyd begged Chen to show him his art the next day.

The cheerleader happily complied.

* * *

 

** Chen the Cheerleader **

**_THESE ARE GREAT_ **

**_HOW DID YOU MAKE THOSE??_ **

**-I combined gold with some crimson paint**

**-And some paper and glue**

**-You like it?**

**_IT LOOKS LIKE REAL FIRE_ **

**_IT’S AWESOME_ **

**_Which reminds me_ **

**_Cole’s dad has contacts_ **

**_With some of the best art colleges_ **

**-What are you saying?**

**_Maybe he could get you a scholarship_ **

**** **-I’m honored**

**-But I want to do this**

**-On my own?**

**_Understandable_ **

* * *

 

Three weeks in, and they decided to start meeting each other outside of the dojo.

“Are we becoming friends?” Lloyd asked as played with the straw from his bobba tea. They were currently seated underneath a tree on the park, the first days of August making themselves known with more potent sun rays and the laugh of children made a nice background noise.

“I think so” Chen answered before taking a sip from his own bobba tea. “We text each other a lot… and are hanging out. Friends do that”

“True”

It wasn’t the only thing they did. They also noticed stuff from each other: Lloyd was quick to learn that Chen was left handed, the blue and white jacket that he always wore outside the Noodle House belonged to Ninjago High’s cheer team and it hold sentimental value to him too. He hated talking about Master Chen, but loved talking about his sister. His mom was a sensitive topic. Had a weakness for sour candy-

_“The after taste leaves you wanting more” he had explained._

-And had attempted to read Fritz Donnegan’s comic books, but it had been difficult for him to follow the narrative. On the other hand, Chen had retaliated by pointing out that Lloyd was prone to blush at almost everything (and the very traitor had started taking advantage of it. Not that it bothered Lloyd). He also noticed that Lloyd always wore long sleeves, even in the middle of summer-

_“The heat and the cold don’t really bother me” the blond had admitted, “Perks of being the Green Ninja”_

-The brunet had also noticed the said ninja’s own candy weakness for any type of the sugar sweets, but the sweeter the better. That Lloyd really liked the chicken noodle soup at the Noodle House because it remained him of his dad’s cooking, and that when he was uncomfortable he would play with his sleeves.

In the practices, they started exchanging candy.

When Lloyd and Kai crashed at the Noodle House, Chen already was preparing the chicken noodle soup.

And when they hanged out, Lloyd always took out a copy of the Fritz Donnegan’s comics and read it out loud for Chen to follow the narrative.

Yeah.

They were becoming friends.

* * *

 

“You have an incoming call, Master Lloyd” Pixal’s voice announced in the Green Ninja’s ear as he narrowly avoided getting impaled by a sword. Ronin had finally reveled what was stolen from his shop, an ancient map to Hiroshi’s Labyrinth. He, Lloyd and Kai had been tracking it since, and it had lead them straight to a trap in the high grounds of Ninjago City, the ghost thief still unknown and slipping away. It didn’t help that the men attacking them refused to give a name.

“Tell Mother I’m a bit busy!” Lloyd said as he kicked the man who had attempted to stab him into the other room.

“The call is actually from Chen” Pixal calmly replied.

“WHAT?!” was all Lloyd managed to yell before suddenly getting tackled into another room full of valuables by five men. Pixal seemed to take that as an approval to answer the call.

 _“Hey, Garmadork”_ Chen started the conversation at the same time Ronin yelled “DON’T LET THEM BREAK ANY OF THOSE! I COULD USE THEM FOR MY SHOP!”

 _“Was that… Ronin?”_ Chen’s voice asked confused while Lloyd managed to salvage a crystal statue from hitting the ground and dodging another sword and a… chicken leg?

“Yeah!” Lloyd replied breathlessly as he knocked out two of the men with his powers, “We’re kinda-”

PANG! There went another guy after attempting to hit Lloyd with one of the statues, which now lay shattered in the ground.

“-busy right now” he added while in the other room Kai was heard screaming, followed by the sound of raging fire. “Can I call you later?”

_“And you lose a question”_

“Are you serious right now?!” Lloyd incredulously asked, the man that was about to make a move at him stopping mid-attack and briefly lowering a silver plate.

“Well, I know it’s not a usual weapon, Green Ninja, but-”

“Not you!” Lloyd snapped. The man shrugged and charged any ways.

 _“I’m gonna ignore that question, but to answer the previous one, nope. I’m bored”_ Chen replied. Lloyd could almost hear his smile.

“You’re unbelievable” the blond muttered as he unfolded his swords. But nevertheless, he couldn’t keep the grin of his face.

_“You like me that way”_

“True”

CLANG! The man was now unconscious on the floor.

 _“Anyway, I was organizing my drawings, and I found this really neat one of a dragon that I made when I was little, do you think I should re-do it?”_ Chen inquired at the same time another guy charged towards Lloyd.

“Doesn’t sound like a bad idea” the Green Ninja said as he dodged an attack and kicked back.

 _“Come on man, I need something more than that!”_ Chen’s voice implored.

“Well, what did you want me to suggest? A naked portrait?” Lloyd asked with a dead-pan while he and his attacker continued to throw in kicks and punches.

_“Hmm…. Are you implying what I think you’re implying?”_

FSM, Lloyd could _see_ the eyebrow wiggle. Before he could give Chen a piece of his mind, Kai yelled from the other room:

“LLOYD, COULD WE FOCUS ON THE FIGHT AND NOT FLIRTING WITH CHEN JR?!”

“I’M NOT FLIRTING WITH CHEN!” Lloyd yelled back as he punched the guy he was fighting unconscious as Chen laughed over the com.

* * *

 

“I’m starting to think you’re doing this on purpose” Chen muttered as Lloyd once again had defeated him and had him pinned on the ground. They had been doing this for five weeks now, and Chen had been improving every time. His only problem was that no matter how he tried, he couldn’t just keep Lloyd down.

“I assure you, I’m not” Lloyd said as he got off the teen and they both got up, “You need to put more pressure on the limps you’re holding, that’s why I keep winning”

Chen sighed.

“If you say so…” he trailed off. Lloyd took a good look on him. Today, Chen had been quite silent, no text messages before they met at the dojo, no sassy comebacks or any form of the Chen Lloyd had come to know.

“Are you okay?” he asked softly. Chen kept silent as he crossed his legs, shoulders slumped. Lloyd sat next to him, tentatively putting his hand on the brunet’s shoulder, “Chen, you know you can talk to me, right?”

A sad hazel met a concerned green.

“I found out why those thugs attacked me a few weeks ago” he said, lowering his gaze to the ground. Lloyd found his grip on the shoulder tightening, but Chen continued talking, “They came after me because I was… one of those guys” he whispered, his voice shaking slightly. Lloyd frowned.

“One of those guys?” he repeated with confusion. Chen looked at him, his whole figure suddenly vulnerable.

“They targeted me because I’m gay, Lloyd” he said. Lloyd felt his mouth open in a small “Oh”

Well, it wasn’t shocking. Not really. It didn’t bother him the slightest.

But Chen wasn’t done talking.

“Turns out they do that. Target people who don’t follow the hetero agenda, bi, gay, ace, trans, demi, the list goes on. I don’t know how they knew, but they knew and that- that-” Chen seemed to be shocking on his own words.

“It scares you” Lloyd finished for him. Chen numbly nodded. He then suddenly sat up straighter, looking at Lloyd like a dear caught in the headlights.

“Oh my- I didn’t mean to tell you that- I- shit” he stammered. Lloyd smiled faintly.

“Relax, like I’m going to tell someone”

“You don’t mind?” Chen said, the vulnerability visible once again. He sounded like a child waiting for a scolding.

“Why should I mind?” Lloyd asked with disbelief, “You’re still Chen, cheerleader, master of the noodles and paint, sassy man and my friend with a terrible timing at making calls” he added with a smile and silently cursed his sudden flushed cheeks.

Chen smiled at him. Not a smirk or a small, faint one, but a bright and true one. Something in Lloyd’s chest leaped.

“Thank you” he said with a hoarse tone as Lloyd wrapped his arm around his body in comfort.

“Besides, if they come for you again, you’re qualified to take them out” the blond assured with a sly smile, which caused the brunet to bark a laugh.

“You think I’m ready to do that? I still can’t beat you” he muttered with a small smirk.

“Well then, if you can’t, I’ll beat them. They won’t stand against a ninja” Lloyd boasted while Chen rolled his eyes.

“Someone’s feeling cocky” he pointed out.

“Your influence” Lloyd replied.

“I don’t know if I should be proud or horrified” Chen said with a headshake while Lloyd simply laughed, letting go of his friend and laying down on the ground, the cheerleader soon following him. A comfortable silence settled between them, the only noise being Dareth in the other room laughing to the TV.

“Hey, your friends are coming back today, aren’t they?” Chen questioned, turning his head slightly to face Lloyd, who smiled fondly.

“Yeah, and they’re also leaving again” he confirmed, “I missed them” he then admitted with a whisper. He could feel Chen’s full attention on him, but Lloyd continued to stare at the ceiling. “I miss my family”

“You’re all that close, huh?” Chen softly said.

“If we weren’t, I don’t think Ninjago would even be standing” Lloyd said with a chuckle, “But, yeah. It’s hard not to, we all got a role, Zane and Cole are the mom and dad, Jay is the sibling that makes sure everyone’s alright, Kai is the hot-tempered brother, Nya is the sister that would punch your bullies unconscious, uncle Wu… was the wise one, along with my own dad” he allowed himself a smile.

“And… your mom?” Chen inquired. Lloyd shifted a bit uncomfortably. Lately, talking about Misako was hard. Both he and Kai agreed that she was throwing herself into her work to find Wu, but Kai had tried to ease Lloyd’s mind about it, telling him that if she left, she was definitely going to tell him. Lloyd tried believing him.

“She’s the researcher” he finally said, “Always looking for an answer… and leaving everything to follow a clue” he added a bit bitterly, the lights on the dojo suddenly flickering a bit with his mood. Chen gasped in surprise, getting up and observing the lights go back between faint green and their normal yellow.

“Did you- did you just do that?” he questioned, looking back at Lloyd in shock, who felt his cheeks go red in embarrassment.

“Maybe” he admitted, “Sorry, it happens sometimes”

But Chen didn’t looked bothered, in fact he seemed to be curious at Lloyd’s small accidental display of power. He also looked like he wanted to ask, but before he could, the blond’s phone started to vibrate with an incoming call, interrupting.

“I guess you have to go” Chen said. Lloyd nodded.

“Talk to you later?” he asked.

“You better, or else I’ll feel abandoned” Chen said playfully, earning a laugh from the ninja.

* * *

 

“LLOYD!”

Said teen nearly got tackled to the ground by his friends with the hug they assaulted him with, but Lloyd didn’t mind at all. He let himself enjoy the moment.

“Hi guys” he said as he let go, taking a good look on the team. Despite only staying for a few hours in the city to report back and go off again with provisions and new destinations, Nya and Jay looked a little dusty, while Cole and Zane seemed to have rolled down a mountain. Aside from that, they all looked fine, but Lloyd detected a rejected vibe on them. He sighed.

“You didn’t find anything, did you?” he guessed as he took a seat on one of the stools in the _Destiny’s Bounty_.

“No” Nya confirmed, disappointment evident in her voice.

“The temples were void of answers too” Zane added.

“Well… damn it” Kai mumbled.

“But it wasn’t all in vain!” Jay jumped in, “We got informed to look in monk temples!”

“Monk temples?” Cole asked with some slight disbelief, “There like hundreds of those in the outskirts!”

“Well, we better start looking!” Jay shot back.

“We also heard that some people are trying to get control over some villages in the west” Nya added, ignoring Cole and Jay’s new bickering of monk temples.

“Yeah, well, seems like there’s a lot of out of control stuff lately” Kai said, “Last month, the day you guys left? Lloyd and I received a call from Ronin. The guy got possessed by a ghost and then said ghost stole a map from him, leading to Hiroshi’s Labyrinth”

Now he got the others attention.

“A ghost?” Zane repeated at the same time Cole touched his green scar with some concern.

“We tried tracking it down. Last week we got a lead, but it was a trap and the guys who attacked us refused to say a word” Lloyd continued, “We tried asking around, but either no one knows anything or can’t remember a thing. Our phantom is quite good at erasing his tracks”

“We think it might have already be on its merry way to the Labyrinth” Kai revealed. “But we can’t be sure either”

“Well, this ghost must know about the Realm Crystal is guarded there, right? Why else would he or she be so desperate to steel a map to the Labyrinth?” Nya said, “As much as I trust Cyrus Borg tech, I say we go check it out, just in case”

“Zane and I can go” Cole quipped in, “I’m immune to possessions now, thanks to the ghostly experience I had, and Zane is equipped with enough ice to back one off, since, well, it’s still water”

“Good point” Lloyd admitted, “Then Nya and Jay will start with the monk temples, and-”

“Actually, Lloyd, I thought about going to stop a few of the raising tyrants in the villages, it’s getting concerning” Nya cut him off softly. Lloyd felt like protesting, but even he knew she was right.

“Alright then, Cole and Zane will go to the Labyrinth to check on the crystal and the general safe it’s contained in while Jay and Nya bring some control over the villages and then-”

“We return just in time for your nineteenth birthday” Zane finished for him with a smile.

“Speaking of which, aside from the ghost, what have we missed? Did you guys cleared out the thing with Skylor’s brother?” Jay asked with eagerness as the rest gave equal looks of curiosity.

“Oh, we cleared it alright” Kai smirked down at Lloyd before he addressed the others, “Chen Jr is cool, plus, our Master here has become quite close with him” he added, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Seriously?” Lloyd deadpanned. The Red Ninja raised his hands in surrender.

“I’m just telling the truth here, Skylor says the same thing” he said with a slight chuckle, “She likes that you’re teaching Chen Jr self-defense and otherwise hang out with him”

“Huh” Cole looked amused, “Sooo, from flirting with him upon your first meeting, to suddenly becoming friends? Should we expect a relationship when we come back?” he jokingly asked.

“We’re just friends” Lloyd murmured, crossing his arms and staring at the setting sun while ignoring the blush on his cheeks.

“Famous last wooooords” Jay sing-songed as he made it to the Green Ninja’s side. Lloyd retailed by giving him a nudge to the stomach, which only earned a laugh from the Blue Ninja.

“Can’t we talk about something else before you guys leave?” Lloyd begged. Thankfully, Nya took pity of him and she was quick to usher everyone inside the ship, claims of time being wasted and that the provisions were not going to pack themselves.

And for the next four hours, everything fell into an old routine. Cole, Jay, Zane and Nya got changed into new and cleaner gi’s after their food and water were packed; all of them got seated together in front of the TV, watching a sappy action movie Lloyd didn’t even remember them owning. The small peace felt right, but even so… for a reason he couldn’t explain… he missed Chen’s presence as ridiculous one-liners and innuendos were made in the film. He could almost see his friend making suggestive comments at him.

Then it was over.

They said their goodbyes and their promises.

And it was Kai, Lloyd and Misako once again in the _Destiny Bounty_.

Speaking of Misako…. Lloyd came to a halt, just barely hearing Kai talking about going to patrol. He just realized he hadn’t heard of her since yesterday, today being too busy training and getting ready to meet Chen that…. he didn’t even see her. A pang of guilt surge hit Lloyd, yeah, mother and son had their fights and he was sometimes a bit salty with her, but Misako was still fa-

“Are you even listening to what I’m saying?” Kai’s voice broke Lloyd out of his thoughts.

“Um…patrolling, right?” Lloyd probed. His friend frowned a bit as he adjusted his gi belt. Lloyd didn’t even realized he had changed.

“Aaaand to visit Skylor for a moment” Kai finished, “One thing that I love about her is that she insists on giving me free take-out” he said with a love sick grin. Lloyd nodded absentmindedly, his gaze breaking off to stare at Misako’s door. There was a strange feeling in his gut…

“Alright” the blond said, barely looking at Kai, “You go do that, I’ll go check on my mother; she hasn’t come out all day” he added a bit worried as the knot in his stomach grew. He barely even took notice of his friend leaving as he made his way to Misako’s door.

All alone in the _Bounty_ , his steps somehow sounded empty the closer he got to his mother’s bedroom, his anxiety growing. Something was wrong, he could feel it as he knocked on the door.

“Mother? Are you alright? I haven’t seen you all day” Lloyd said.

No response.

“Mother?” he tried knocking again, this time focusing his hearing on the inside of the room.

Was it him, or the sound was hollow?

The knot in his stomach, the sudden anxiety had blearing an alarm on his head. With trembling hands, Lloyd opened the door to Misako’s room, hoping, praying in his grandfather’s name that he would be meet with a messy bedroom filled with more boxes that stored a thousand maps and ancient text in a primitive language and waiting for the smell of old parchments and books to welcome him. But all that greeted Lloyd was an unnatural clean room covered with sheets, everything that looked old or breakable put away. A tell-tale adventure backpack gone from the racket it had been hanging on the past months.

“Mom?” Lloyd still whispered, managing to sound like a lost child, almost expecting Misako to appear beside him and pull him into a hug.

But he knew better.

She had left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *cracks nuckles* Oh, I had fun with this one. I hope you guys enjoyed the time-skips! First time trying that.


	8. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“And why am I telling this to you?_  
>  _Guess there’s a part of me that wants to”_  
>  Be More Chill Ensemble (A Guy that I’d Kinda be Into)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING! 
> 
> This chapter will treat abandonment issues. I'm not sure if this will affect any of you, but just in case, please read with caution.

He felt like he was four years old again, left alone in the dark and in front of wooden doors that belonged to a boarding school designed for bad children, with only a letter that he wasn’t supposed to open until another adult came to get him. Lloyd could faintly remember that he had cried in despair until his eyes simply ran out of tears to shed, his chest had burned and felt hollow, his throat dry as he begged his mother to come back, even going as far as to call for his banished father.

Years later, as Pythor and the Serpentine turned his back on him, Lloyd would learn that the burning feeling and the hollowness were called betrayal.

And here he was, experiencing it again.

Only that this time it was probably worse. Lloyd felt his whole body numb and seemingly in auto-pilot as he left Misako’s room and made its way into his own chambers, the lights in the _Destiny Bounty_ flickering dangerously above with every step he took. His eyes started to sting, but Lloyd angrily fought the tears back, in consequence his breathing becoming unsteady.

In the distance, the distinctive sound of a few light bulbs exploding was heard as Lloyd finally reached his room. He collapsed against the wall when his vision became a blur and his cheeks started to feel wet, hands gripping his hair as he fought to regain some control over his emotions. He wanted to scream, to curse at Misako, to curse at everyone who had left him to stumble in the dark.

Something in his chest broke out, and soon loud sobs were the only sound that seemed to come out of Lloyd’s body, sending tremors and making more tears fall into the floor as he sunk to the ground, the wall being his only support.

_“I’m not going anywhere, Lloyd”_

_“I love you so much, you know that, right?”_

Misako’s voice and her empty promises resonated in his head, and the sound of more light bulbs exploding got closer and the lights kept on flickering and his chest felt tight and burning and-

_“I’m always here for you, Lloyd”_

And he screamed, his cries only muffled by the loud POP! of bedroom lights as everything around him went dark. He screamed in frustration, anger, hurt.

Then, the realization over what he had just done crashed over him. Lloyd didn’t dare to move from his spot on the floor while the sound of falling broken glass kept on going. He could feel some shards on his hair and his non-stop shaking had made some of it fall onto the ground. The tears kept on falling, the sobs were still less than quiet and Lloyd couldn’t help but feel alone and guilty at his lack of control. He wished Kai had been there with him, he would have kept him under-control, he would have taken Lloyd on patrol to distract him…if had been there to Kai find out along with Lloyd, the Red Ninja would have left just to fetch Misako and give her a piece of his mind.

And Lloyd didn’t wish to see Misako.

At all.

Enough was enough. The previous wounds of her first abandonment had been sealed with band-aids and said band-aids had now fallen, no longer managing to stick onto him. Misako had left. Just like that. She didn’t even leave _a note_.

Gripping a side of his hair with one hand, Lloyd let his other one fall to the ground and immediately put it up, hissing as the side of his hand started to sting, having made contact with the glass shards. Letting out a shaky breath, Lloyd pulled his legs up, resting his head on the knees as most of the remaining glass fell to the floor along with his tears.

He didn’t want to be alone. First he lost his dad, then his uncle, his team had just left again on a seemingly endless mission, and did he mention his mother had abandoned him? Cause there was that little detail.

And oddly enough? He didn’t want Kai here, despite considering him his brother and one of his closest friends. No, his heart, regardless of being hurt, wanted someone else to be there with him.

With his trembling and surely now bleeding hand, Lloyd fished his cell-phone from his hoodie pocket, praying that it had been spared in his power outburst, giving away another shaky breath as he stared at the cracked-yet-still miraculously functioning screen. His finger hovered over the contact, hesitating.

Should he do this? Would it be worth it?

Lloyd pressed call anyway, attempting to calm down his breathing to a normal degree as the other line picked up.

 _“Garmadork! And here I was thinking on calling you first!”_ Chen’s cheery voice was accompanied in the background by The Fold’s _A-W-E-S-O-M-E_ , breaking the sorrowful silence that hung in the _Destiny Bounty_ and making a small smile to try to make itself know on Lloyd’s still wavering lips.

“He-hey, Chen” he answered with a quiver on his voice. He immediately bit his lip, mentally slapping himself. So much for pretending he was okay.

 _“Lloyd? Are you alright? You sound… strange”_ Chen’s worried voice was now a contrast to the cheery music he was listening to. Lloyd, in turn, hugged his knees closer to his chest.

“I’m f-” he swallowed, “I’m fi- I’m fine” Lloyd’s voice cracked, betraying him. What was the point if even he couldn’t lie to himself?

 _“Don’t lie to me, Lloyd, you’re obviously the opposite of ‘fine’”_ Chen said as the music in the background came to a stop, _“What’s wrong?”_ he asked with a gentle yet still concerned tone. Lloyd stayed silent, his words suddenly stuck on his throat.

 _“Lloyd? You know you can also tell me anything. Please, what’s wrong?”_ the cheerleader was basically pleading. Lloyd wanted to tell him, but the only thing that came out was a chocked sob. He shut his eyes and griped the phone harder. On the other side of the line, Chen swore, sounds of doors being slammed opened following close behind.

 _“Are you hurt?”_ Chen’s voice now had a certain edge to it, like he was desperately searching for something as worried voices and shouts were heard on the background alongside quick footsteps. The simple fact that he was worried over Lloyd possibly being hurt gave the blond enough strength to speak.

“She- she left me” Lloyd managed to whisper.

 _“Who left?”_ Chen asked softy. Lloyd took a shaky breath.

“My- my mother… she just… she just left” he failed to prevent his voice from cracking again. FSM, the emotional wounds hurt like bullet holes, this wasn’t something that could be fixed with talking.

 _“What?”_ Whatever Chen had been doing, it seemed to come to a stop. A muffled voice was heard on the other line, and it was soon replaced by more rapid footsteps. Lloyd felt his eyes go blurry again as another sob shook through his body. He shouldn’t be dropping this on Chen, whose own mother was a sensitive topic to talk about and his father was basically taboo.

“I’m sorry, I- I shouldn’t- I shouldn’t be taking this on you. It’s stupid” Lloyd stared to say as he separated the phone from his ear, keen on ending the call-

 _“-NO!”_ But Chen’s frantic shout put a stop on his actions. Lloyd turned to stare at it with some shock as Chen continued to talk, _“No, don’t say that, Lloyd, this isn’t stupid”_ his voice, despite mysteriously sounding breathless, had an assuring tone to it. Lloyd remained silent in utter astonishment.

 _“Come on, keep talking to me, Garmadork”_ Chen said, adding again the familiar nickname. Taking a deep breath, Lloyd put the phone back on his ear, a wave of gratitude washing over him.

“I… I saw it… I s-saw it coming, C-Chen” his voice still wavered, but Lloyd forced himself to keep on talking, “It’s my fault again. If- if I had done something-” he whispered, gripping his legs harder.

 _“Nonono, don’t blame yourself, Lloyd”_ Chen soothed.

Was it Lloyd’s imagination or did his voice had made an echo on the _Bounty_?

And why was he suddenly hearing cracks in the hallway?

“It’s not your fault”

Lloyd nearly jumped when Chen’s voice came from beside him and not the mobile. Turning his head to the doorframe, he gasped when he found Chen, slightly panting and holding his phone, leaning against the door. The cheerleader smiled softly at him as he ended the call and proceeded to turn the phone flashlight on.

 “You… came?” was all that Lloyd could managed to say as he lowered his mobile to the ground. Chen nodded.

“Yes”

“W-why?” Lloyd whispered, flinching slightly at Chen’s frown while he himself casted his eyes to the floor, opting to look at the shards of glass currently being illuminated by the light.

“I thought…” the cheerleader seemed to flatter, “I thought that you shouldn’t be alone” he admitted, walking closer towards Lloyd, who flinched harder at the glass cracking over Chen’s feet, closing his eyes as he tried to calm down his breathing.

“I… I don’t want to” he confessed, opening his eyes once again to look at Chen, who had now crouched down to Lloyd’s level and had put his own phone on the floor. The brunet smiled at him, before he looked his hazel eyes with Lloyd’s and gasped.

“Lloyd… your eyes…” Chen whispered, eyes wide. The blond frowned for a moment, thinking about commenting that, yeah, his eyes and face were a mess, before it dawned to him what his friend meant.

FSM, was it possible for a stomach to be filled with even more dread?

“They’re not green, are they?” he murmured with barely controlled horror. Chen numbly nodded, his gaze still fixated on him. Lloyd shut his eyes and turned his head away from the brunet, expecting him to leave. He couldn’t help but feel a bit stupid in doing so, but then again, it wasn’t really public knowledge that the famous Green Ninja had actually inherited his father’s red eyes. The eyes which held the evidence of the Great Devourers venom, the eyes that been the literal red flag about Garmadon being evil. The same eyes that had convinced the Ninja, his classmates and teachers at Darkley’s that Lloyd was meant to become just like his dad.

He had always feared that if the rest of the people of Ninjago knew about the true color of his eyes, they would shun him. And now Chen knew.

Some more tears collected themselves behind his eyelids. He didn’t want to lose Chen.

But then, he realized that Chen hadn’t moved. Instead? His warm hand was gently touching Lloyd’s cheek, guiding his face to turn at him. Lloyd shuddered, but kept his eyes closed.

“Lloyd?” Chen spoke gently, “Please open your eyes”

The blond hesitated, biting his lip for a moment. There was no hint of malice in Chen’s voice, just the curious tone he had become accustomed to in the past month. Letting out a small sigh, he complied, opening his eyes slowly. Chen scanned the new discovery for a bit before centering his hazel eyes on Lloyd’s crimson ones.

“They’re beautiful” he whispered with a warm smile.

Lloyd couldn’t help but suck in a breath in surprise as two tears came out. He couldn’t remember the last time someone had said that to him. Chen frowned slightly, wiping out one of the tears, while he asked, “But why are they red now? They were green in the afternoon…?”

The blond lowered his head, remaining silent.

“Does…” Chen seemed to hesitate for a moment, “Does it have to do with why all the light bulbs in here and the street are suddenly busted?”

Lloyd nodded.

“I lost control” he revealed, turning his head up to face his poorly light up ceiling, making Chen’s hand shift to his shoulder, “I didn’t- I didn’t mean to…” his voice quivered again.

“It happens, it’s normal to sometimes lose control Lloyd-” Chen assured, but Lloyd kept on talking.

“-Not with me, not when you’re the Green Ninja, everyone just- just expects me to-” he suddenly couldn’t continue, once again feeling choked on his own words.

“Hold it in?” Chen finished for him, an understanding look on his face. The blond nodded once again.

“Yeah” he whispered, “And I could do it, but… I don’t know, the stress of what’s happening with my uncle’s search was starting to get to me, and-” he closed his eyes again, “-and then mother left again…. And I lost it”

“I see…” Chen trailed off. The room felt silent, the only sound being Lloyd’s occasional sniffs and the distant sound of people trying to figure out what had caused the outside light bulbs to explode.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Chen asked, “About your mom?” he clarified at the blond’s confused look. Lloyd bit his lip, unsure. The cheerleader seemed to sense his distress, however, letting out a sigh of his own.

“My mom…” Chen hesitated again, while Lloyd’s head perked up in some surprise, “My mom used to tell me and Skylor that when you’re feeling sad, you should talk about it with someone, so that way you can let all the sadness out. It may not cure it, but you’ll feel better once you do” he said while playing with his fingers, “It was her favorite advice when we were kids” he added as he looked back at Lloyd, giving him an unsure smile.

Lloyd swallowed, allowing a shaky smile of his own to finally graze his face as he nodded.

“Okay”

Chen sighed in relief before getting up, grabbing his phone as he did so.

“Alright, but let’s get you something to drink first and get you out of here, your room looks comfortable, but the glass kinda ruins it” he thought for a moment, “Actually, the last one should go first” he said as he offered Lloyd his hand, who gladly took it.

“Do you know if there’s a place that got spared of your power outburst?” Chen asked him softly. Lloyd bit his lips, thinking.

“Um… I believe… the kitchen and the living room. The last time we re-decorated the _Destiny Bounty_ , my uncle had Zane and Jay secure the normal and the emergency lights with vengestone. They should be working”

“Shouldn’t your room also be secured with it?” Chen inquired as they both started walking towards the living room, both of them wincing slightly as the sound of broken glass beneath their feet, “Since… well” he trailed off.

“It was going to, but then my uncle… vanished, and we put it aside in order to look for him” Lloyd admitted, pausing to open the door to the room and blindly looking for the switch. When the lights turned out to be alright, he breathed a sigh of relief. He turned to look at Chen, who was scanning the room in some wonder before centering his attention back at Lloyd.

“Sit down while I get you something” Chen calmly ordered, “I suppose that’s the kitchen?” he asked as he pointed with his head to the room at the other side. Lloyd nodded, wincing slightly when the remaining glass shards that were resting on his hair fell to the ground.

“Not even you came unscratched, huh?” Chen said as Lloyd took a seat.

“Nu-uh” Lloyd confirmed as he showed him his left hand, the one what had been cut. The blood had dried off already.

“Shit, Lloyd” Chen hissed as he grabbed his hand to examine it, “Does it hurt?”

“No” he answered, “I’ve had worse, a cut is nothing” he said as he pulled his hand back. Lloyd could feel Chen’s frown on him, but apparently the other teen knew that perhaps it was better to ask later.

Chen went and came within minutes with a glass of water and a wet rag, offering the glass to Lloyd while grabbing once again the injured hand.

“Just because it doesn’t hurt doesn’t mean it can get infected” he responded to Lloyd’s raised eyebrow, “Plus, it kinda gives me something to do aside from listening to you talk” he added with a small smirk, which in turn made Lloyd finally smile without a waiver.

“Thanks” he said while his cheeks faintly tainted pink.

“There’s the Garmadork blush” Chen laughed warmly as he took a seat beside Lloyd, “So… what happened?” he asked softly while Lloyd took a sip of water.

Lloyd sighed, the whole ordeal felt like it had happened days ago and it had only happened… what? An hour ago? He didn’t know.

“So, um… as you know…. My uncle Wu went missing on February and my friends had been searching for him for the past seven months, with me staying here in New Ninjago City with my- with my mother” he started to explain, his voice once again wavering at the end, “And…um… like I told you before… mother is the researcher. She… she takes off to find an answer, leaving-” his voice cracked again, and Lloyd forced himself to breathe in and out before continuing, “Leaving…. everything behind”

His vision was becoming blurry again. Chen had stopped cleaning his wound, and was now gently gripping Lloyd’s knee in support.

“She- she didn’t even leave me a note, Chen. Didn’t even tell Kai or Nya or Jay or Cole or Zane… she just took off while we were distracted. FSM, she probably even left earlier!” he was shaking again, “And I don’t know what even the worst part is: the fact that I saw it coming and didn’t do anything to stop it or that it’s not the first time she pulls this off” he slumped against the couch dejectedly.

“”What… what do you mean?” Chen whispered, “With both parts, I mean. I know you were blaming yourself, but… why?”

Lloyd turned to look at him, his eyes leaking a few new tears.

“I… the last few months, mother had been throwing herself in her research. I confronted her about it, and we got into an argument. She then said she wasn’t going anywhere” he let out a bitter laugh, “And then? I find her with tons of books and maps, ask her about it, and she- she said she was looking for possible locations my uncle could have ended, and when I’m about to question her, she gives me a hug and says that she loves me” he sniffed, “I should have pressured her” he whispered, “Maybe that way she wouldn’t have left”

“And… the other time?” Chen questioned with some hesitation. Lloyd closed his eyes.

“She abandoned me at a boarding school for bad children” he said, “Never came back. Not even when… not even when I got kicked out” Lloyd opened his eyes, staring back at Chen, who looked shocked.

“You got kicked out and she didn’t come for you?” he whispered with horror, “Lloyd, how old were you?”

“Eight” Lloyd replied, voice hollow, “I was eight years old, and my dad was in the underworld and my uncle didn’t even know where I had been… I… I was alone”

He didn’t know why, but he started to laugh as the tears continued to flow.

“Lloyd?” Chen asked concerned.

“Sorry, it’s just that- I’ve never really told anyone this” Lloyd confessed, looking at Chen, who in turn looked taken aback, “I- I don’t even know why-UF”

Before he knew it, Chen had grabbed Lloyd and pulled him into a hug.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that, Lloyd, but you have to understand, none of it it’s your fault” he whispered. The blond couldn’t help it: he clung to Chen’s jacket and let himself go. He cried the rest of his tears away while getting lost in the scent of paint and strawberry, in the scent of a simple life, in a scent of comfort.

Chen’s initial appearance in his room had been a literal small light in the darkness. Now his light has basically pushed the dark from Lloyd out of the window.

“Thank you, Chen” he breathed. The brunet chuckled.

“You’re welcome, Lloyd”

* * *

 

Lloyd didn’t remember falling asleep.

At first, he was confused over why he was sleeping in the living room’s couch instead of his bed, when last night’s events came crashing back.

Kai leaving for patrol, discovering his mother had left, breaking down, calling Chen, Chen coming to comfort him, talking with Chen.

Chen in gene-

Wait.

Lloyd sat up, sending the blanket that had been covering him to the floor. The blond looked at the cloth in confusion, he didn’t remember bringing a blanket to the living room…

“Morning sleepy-head!” Kai barged into the living room carrying a tray of tea, soon followed by Chen himself with another tray that seemed to be holding freshly made dumplings. The cheerleader, like Lloyd, was still wearing his clothes from the other day, his hair looking like a birds nest. However, he greeted the blond with a warm smile that made his heart start making loops in his chest. Kai, on the other hand, was in his pajamas, and was looking at Lloyd with a strange combination of a smirk and a concerned face.

Lloyd blinked.

“Kai? Chen?” he tentatively asked while looking back and forth to both of them, “What…?”

They both started to talk at the same time.

“I found Chen Jr here fixing up broken light bulbs and he told me you had lost control of your powers” Kai started to say while passing him a cup of tea, “Which in turn explains why Pixal was blearing alarms in my communicator-”

“-You fell asleep, and I really didn’t have the heart to wake you up, after what happened, you looked like you needed it-” Chen was explaining as he put down the tray on the coffee table and sat beside Lloyd, who couldn’t help but stare at him in wonder and some shock. He had stayed, taking care of him. He hadn’t left him alone.

“-And it also explains why your eyes are red again” Kai trailed off, staring at both boys with the smirk still on his face. However, he remained forgotten by Lloyd and Chen, the latter rubbing the back of neck a bit awkwardly, hazel eyes going around the room until they rested on the clock, eyes widening.

“Um…I should go, my shift starts in ten minutes” he sounded apologetic as he got up, “Talk to you later?” he asked to Lloyd, who nodded with a small smile on his face, which quickly got returned by Chen.

“Goodbye, Kai. Bye, Lloyd” he said before making his way out of the living room.

“Bye, Chen” Lloyd whispered as he disappeared towards the upper deck.

Now alone with Kai, a somehow uncomfortable silence took over the room, since said Red Ninja was now staring at Lloyd with a neutral look on his face, something he had not done since Lloyd was a kid and still behaving like an untrustworthy brat. The blond reached for one of the dumplings, not really knowing what to say.

“Why didn’t you call me?” Kai finally said, breaking the silence. Lloyd’s quest to feed himself paused mid-air.

“Huh?”

The Elemental Master of Fire started pacing around the room, a habit of his when he was slightly frustrated.

“You usually come to me when you lose control of your powers” he explained, not looking at Lloyd, whose own eyes widened in realization, “So… why didn’t you call me?”

Kai wasn’t mad, he was disappointed, Lloyd grasped.

“I…” he faltered, eyes downcast to stare at the cup of tea. His closest friend deserved an explanation, and Lloyd couldn’t come up with one.

“I don’t know… I wanted to, but… I didn’t want to talk to you” has all he managed to say. Kai frowned, crossing his arms over his chest and opening his mouth to say something, but Lloyd beat him to it.

“It’s not really an excuse, I know, and as much as I see you as my older brother… I just… I couldn’t. It’s like my heart wanted to only talk with Chen” he confessed, looking back at his friend. Kai gaped at him for a moment, forest green eyes wide.

“I know it’s weird-” Lloyd started to say, squirming a bit under the spiky-haired teen’s look before his mouth started forming one of his stupid I-know-something-you-don’t smiles.

“-Oh, Lloyd-”

“-But it helped!” Lloyd jumped in before Kai could finish, nearly spilling his tea on his lap. Kai, however, was still grinning at him.

“Lloyd, it’s not weird” his friend shook his head, hands now on his hips.

“It’s… not?” Lloyd whispered, confused and wondering why Kai was beaming like an idiot.

“Nope” Kai said, popping the ‘p’.

“Really?” Lloyd still asked.

“Really” Kai confirmed as he joined the blond on the couch, calming down his grin to a simple smile.

“Let me ask you something: do you enjoy spending time with Chen Jr?” he questioned, voice in ‘big brother’ mode.

“Yes” Lloyd replied, still confused at what point the conversation was going.

“Do you tell him stuff you would hesitate or have hesitated to tell us?” Kai kept on going. Lloyd started playing with his sleeves, realizing with slight surprise that his cut hand had been wrapped with bandages.

“Um… yeah” he admitted, mind flashing to the Twenty Questions game and last night events.

“Do you feel like time stops moving when you two are together?”

Lloyd thought of the coffee shop, seating together in the dojo while reading a comic book out loud, staring at the ceiling and just talking and talking reassuring words to one another.

“Maybe…”

“Does your stomach make funny turns? Your heart feels like it skipped a beat?” Kai was now smirking as Lloyd remembered Chen’s gentle touch, his smile, his laughter, their banter, the look on his face when Lloyd offered to train him…

“Well, yes” he admitted while his cheeks became flushed, “But I thought I was getting sick-”

“Oh, you are sick” Kai cut him off with a laugh. Lloyd gaped at him.

“What?!” he shrieked while his friend continued to laugh, before sensing Lloyd’s mild distress. Finally calming down and giving Lloyd a knowing look, Kai grabbed him by the shoulders, eyes serious and yet somehow amused.

“Lloyd, I think you’re in love with Chen”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to my best friend, whose a birthday girl today. Happy Birthday Alicia!
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! I had fun writing it.


	9. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Well, everything has changed,_   
> _And now it's only you that matters,_   
> _I will find any way to your wild heart”_  
>  Bleachers (Wild Heart)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *kicks door open* I'M BACK
> 
> *throws in new chapter and proceeds to sip bobba tea*

In a future, if someone asked Lloyd how he had reacted to that revelation, he would have send the person towards Kai, who would gladly recount how the Green Ninja managed to go through the ‘Five Stages of Grief’, in this case recalled as the ‘Five Stages of Shit I’m in Love With Someone’ on the span of ten minutes.

Denial, of course, came first.

“Nonononono, we-were just friends!” Lloyd jumped out of the couch, spilling the tea while having his hands in front of him in an ‘X’ motion as Kai continued to looked amused at the situation, “There’s no way I could be- I- I just can’t!”

“And I just listed all the symptoms and you fit them perfectly, Lloyd” Kai said as Lloyd backed to the corner of the living room like a frightened animal.

“But- but in the team we tease each other all- all the time and make each other blush too!” the blond stuttered, as he mentally slapped himself for the terrible excuse.

“Yeah, when we want to embarrass or mess with each other. You know it” the Red Ninja deadpanned.

Anger was quick to follow as Lloyd abandoned his spot at the corner and started to pace around the room, making the light bulbs on the ceiling glow faintly as he yelled “Damn it, Kai! Why would you tell me this?!”

Kai simply examined his nails.

“Because it’s annoyingly obvious and adorable” he said with a smirk.

“KAI!” Lloyd shrieked while pausing his pacing in front of the coffee table. His friend simply pushed the bowl in front of him.

“Eat a dumpling” Kai commanded, “We can’t talk about feelings on an empty stomach”

Bargaining happened after the spiky-haired teen decided Lloyd was no longer ‘hangry’, in other words, he was seated again in the couch, staring at the ceiling.

“Okay, but how can you be sure?” Lloyd asked for the third time as Kai let out a long sigh.

“You’re behaving as foolishly as me with Skylor, Jay with Nya and Zane with Pixal for crying out loud!” he said as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“…But are you sure?”

Kai simply threw him a pillow.

Depression came after a long silence, in which Lloyd’s anxiety decided to poke fun at him, reminding him of all the dark events in his short life. The anxious thoughts were kind enough to remind him yet again of Misako’s abandonment.

“….Destiny hates me” Lloyd finally mumbled as he grabbed a pillow and hugged it. Kai, who was drinking tea, spit it all out in one go as he turned to look at him.

“Why would you say that?!” he demanded. The blond shrugged.

“Because… I’m me” Lloyd said, “I’m the Green Ninja, Master of getting constantly kidnapped because of my powers… my stupidity unleashed the Serpentine and got me possessed, which got Cole to turn into a ghost… My dad died, my uncle is lost in the time-stream, and the team is all around Ninjago….I’ll screw it up sooner or later” he said, “Chen won’t stick around with me”

“I’m not going to deny that destiny has been a bitch to you” Kai stared to say, “But… Lloyd, haven’t you considered… that maybe, just maybe, this is destiny’s way of saying ‘sorry’?” he finished with a tentative tone as Lloyd stared at him.

“What do you mean?” he asked, not sure if he was liking were this was going. Kai rubbed his neck.

“Listen, I’ve know you for five years, Lloyd. When I met you, you were this unsure little brat who wanted to prove himself, loved making pranks and learning new ninja stuff and smiled at nearly everything. After the Tomorrows Tea to every last fucked up stuff that has happened to you, it was like… your laugh wasn’t heard enough and your smiles were forced most of the time” Kai gently explained.

“Oh” was all Lloyd could say, because FSM, Kai was actually right.

“And then… you met Chen” Kai continued, “You look so bright and happy when you’re with him, and when you talk about him, you’re smiling like that little eight year old brat again” he grinned at him, “I’ll be honest, I missed that Lloyd”

Acceptance sunk into the blond as Kai’s words ran through his head, expelling the anxious thoughts with a kick.

“I like Chen” he whispered at the realization that his friend was right.

“And my name is Kai”

“As in… like-like him” Lloyd continued to whisper in awe.

“I know, I pointed it out”

“Do you think…. he might like me back?” Lloyd asked a bit shyly. Kai, who had once again regained a smirk as the blond finally accepted his situation, shrugged.

“I don’t know” he said as he grabbed a dumpling and popped it into his mouth, “Buw, if whe guy acwually comes wo see you and wawe care of you” he continued while ignoring Lloyd’s disgusted face, “And flirws and mawes you smile and you do whe same…” he added on before finally swallowing his food, “I found the guy fixing all the light bulbs in the _Bounty_ , don’t know how he found the spare ones, but he did. Begged me not to leave you when he explained what happened, and then Chen Jr literally stood in front of me to prevent me from hunting down your mom, who by the way, will have answer to me and Nya when she comes back cause I swear to the FSM-” Kai was basically ranting now, seemingly unaware that the couch had started to smoke.

“-Kai…” Lloyd warned, eyes shifting towards the fire extinguisher Jay had bought as a prank years ago. His friend noticed that he himself was starting to lose control, pausing his rant to take a few calming breaths.

“Sorry” Kai said sheepishly, “But, back to the main point, does Chen Jr like you back?” he paused in thought, closing his eyes. Lloyd leaned in anticipation before noticing that Kai was smirking.

“You’re hanging me on purpose” he pointed out, glaring once Kai started chuckling.

“Guilty” the spiky haired teen said as he ruffled the blond’s hair, “Although personally, I don’t think I should tell you that” he admitted, “It’s something you need to find out by yourself”

“But how will I know that?!” Lloyd asked as he pulled away from Kai and threw his arms to the air for more emphasis, “What he did yesterday and today could have been in the name of friendship for all that I know!” he added, feeling slightly frustrated on Kai’s sudden vow of silence.

“Well, ask him!” the Red Ninja exclaimed. Lloyd shook his head almost immediately.

“No way, I’ll make a fool of myself!” he said, cringing at the imagery his mind decided to curse him with, which somehow included tripping over a banana peel while Chen laughed, “I’ll mess it up, he’ll reject me, and I’ll be forced to change my name to… I don’t know, Floyd Darmagon and move to a temple deep in the mountains!”

“FSM…” Kai muttered, looking at Lloyd with an exasperated face, “Write him a letter then, ‘Dear Chen, do you like me? Love, Lloyd’”

The blond shot him a dirty look.

“No way”

* * *

 

Lloyd spent the rest of the day on his bed, staring at the newly replaced light bulbs in the ceiling with strange fascination. Chen had done that, as a simple act of kindness… or had it just been a need of duty? The young man closed his eyes while a small groan left his lips. He believed the former over the latter, but he and Chen were only friends for just nearly a month. The fact that he felt this way over his friend… if Lloyd was being honest with himself, he was still a little confused over his feelings. He was not going to deny now that he had a crush on Chen, but in love?

It’s not that Lloyd was unfamiliar with love. He knew of platonic love thanks to the Ninja. He knew of family love thanks to his father and his uncle Wu. But romantic love?

That love, as far as _he_ knew, was a strange and complicated thing.

To start, Lloyd really wasn’t sure himself what it was. Kai gave a description, yes, but there was more to that, right? There was really more than getting easily flushed and his stomach making funny flips and his heart beating faster when Chen was in the room?

Lloyd opened his eyes, staring again at the celling in thought.

In love, there was care. The Ninja had grown to care for him when he was a child, and to his eight year old self’s initial annoyance, he had grown to as well, and had continued to do so after the Tomorrow’s Tea incident. Problems were talked about, advice was given, and rants were analyzed.

His father had gone against himself to cause any harm towards Lloyd when he was a child and had been revealed as the Green Ninja. In his care, he had tried his best to prevent a ridiculous prophesy. Granted, trying to destroy Lloyd’s friends and Sensei Wu really didn’t fit in the ‘care’ category, but Garmadon’s true intentions didn’t go unappreciated by Lloyd. Uncle Wu himself had taken care of him after…. Well, he had taken Lloyd under his wing even after he had done some pretty stupid things. And after his dad had been cured, Garmadon gladly and eagerly started to properly care for his now teenage son, giving wise words even in death.

Chen had tended to him, offering an even bigger emotional comfort than what Lloyd had ever received. He had soothed him, reassured him, and listened. His presence, despite being a surprise, had been like a cure. He had even cared for a silly wound. Lloyd himself had cared. He thought it had been just platonic, but now that he thought about it… he had cared enough to make sure Chen knew a way to defend himself, because the thought of his hazel eyes showing pain was too much to bare. And he had also listened to Chen’s troubles, had given him support on his career choice and Chen had always given him the most beautiful soft and awed look to ever exist and Lloyd had momentarily forgotten how to breathe-

Yeah okay, maybe it wasn’t a crush. Maybe he _was_ in love.

It was honestly kinda funny how quickly he did fall for the cheerleader, he thought as his right fingers played with the bandages covering the left hand. Despite knowing each other for a month, Lloyd felt like he’d known Chen forever. They could read each other easily. His presence calmed him, bringing a sense of peace.

Lloyd wanted to tell him. He really did. He wanted to tell him, not caring that his face would probably be all flushed, he wanted to look into those beautiful hazel eyes, caress that slightly dark skin and kiss Chen’s delicate lips-

The loud notification from his still miraculously working phone halted the blond’s thoughts. Heart hammering on his chest, Lloyd reached for the small devise, fully knowing who has texting him.

 

** Chen the Cheerleader **

**-Feeling better?**

**-You had me worried**

 

Lloyd felt his heart beat even faster than normal while at the same time the rest of his insides turned into puddle. He quickly typed a reply-

 

**_Yeah_ **

 

-His fingers hovered over the screen for a moment, hesitating, before typing out:

 

**_Thanks to you_ **

 

Lloyd bit his lip as he awaited for Chen started typing his answer. The damn three dots had never made him so anxious.

 

**-Don’t thank me, Garmadork, I only did what anyone with a common sense would have done. You were hurting.**

 

Additionally, a smile emoji popped out.

Lloyd couldn’t help but giggle.

 

**_Common sense?_ **

**_Kai told me you stopped him from hunting down Mother_ **

**_No one_ **

**_And I mean no one_ **

**_With a COMMON SENSE_ **

**_Has tried to stop Kai from doing that_ **

 

**-That’s not what I meant and you know it**

 

Oh.

That guy was going to be the death of Lloyd.

 

**_I know_ **

**_Sorry_ **

**_But…_ **

**_I don’t think anyone has done that before_ **

**_Care for me like that_ **

**_I mean_ **

 

Had-had that been corny? Did he just sent a corny text to his crush?!

 

**-There’s a first time for everything ;)**

**-But seriously**

**-I care about you, Lloyd**

 

The blond stared at his phone, mouth agape, body frozen.

 _“Don’t jump into conclusions”_ his brain warned him while his heart continued to attempt to burst out of his chest. Lloyd shook his head, staring once again at the seemingly simple text.

“Don’t jump into conclusions” he repeated for himself out loud.

Right.

He honestly didn’t know how to reply back.

What if a simply “I care too” ended unfolding a chain reaction that Lloyd was not ready for?

Lloyd shook his head as he dropped the phone, which landed with a small thud on the bed. He felt confused again now. Why had he gone from wanting to tell Chen to refusing to answer a simple text? How?

 _“It’s called fear”_ a small voice that, to the young man’s horror, sounded like Morro whispered in his head. _“You don’t want to disappoint, as always”_

“Get out of my head” Lloyd hissed, closing his eyes. He hated that every time he felt anxious, his brain would torment him with the dammed main cause of his anxiety.

_“You know I’m right. One wrong move and you shall disappoint”_

_“Oh, is it also hesitation? You know that technically speaking, you’re not really the same age”_

“Shut up”

He had enough during his little depressed episode with Kai. He didn’t need more anxiety-

_-“You’ll disappoint, and he’ll leave. Just like everyone who pretended to care”_

Lloyd got up, angrily marching towards the kitchen to prepare himself a cup of Green Tea.

(He pretended he didn’t hear his phone ringing as he closed the door)

(He tried his best to ignore the sudden heavy weight in his chest as he did so)

* * *

 

“You’re being an idiot” Kai said as Lloyd put away his swords in the weapons cabinet. The blond didn’t have to turn around to know that the Red Ninja was giving him his signature ‘Big-Bro’ glare.

“I know” he replied with a heavy sigh as he closed the oak doors and proceeded to let his forehead rest on the wood for a moment.

“Oh good, you admit it. So, why are you being one?” Kai pressed on. Turning slightly towards Kai, Lloyd shrugged.

“I don’t know”

“You know you’re being an idiot but you don’t know why you’re being an idiot?” his friend gaped at him, incredulous.

But Lloyd didn’t answer. Kai let out a sigh.

“That’s it. Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon, we’re going to have a talk, or so help me FSM…” he said with a slightly frustrated tone. Lloyd didn’t blame him, he too was frustrated with himself. The anxious thoughts had been a nightmare in the last couple of days. The young man would find himself grabbing the phone, watching Chen’s texts and missed calls, wondering what had happened to him. Never once he had send an angry text demanding Lloyd to answer, and the blond didn’t know what to think of that. He had tried to text and answer back, but had backed off like a coward-

Hang on a second.

“Talk about what?” Lloyd asked, a small feeling of dread cementing on his stomach.

“You being an idiot, that’s what” Kai replied, walking towards his own room.

Was there a way to explain this to Kai? He knew that Lloyd would sometimes had anxiety episodes, but Lloyd wasn’t sure how to explain this one. In the meantime, Kai, ignorant to the Green Ninja’s inner turmoil, continued talking.

“I’ll admit I’m baffled. Not only me, but Skylor too” the spiky-haired teen said as he turned to Lloyd, “She, by the way, is a motherfucking angel. Skylor has managed to excuse your behavior to Chen Jr while not hunting down your own ass”

Lloyd was now mute with bafflement. While Kai went silent for a moment as he changed his gi, Lloyd’s mind was racing. As much as he wanted to suddenly give Skylor the biggest thank you possible (which maybe included locking her and Kai in a room for alone time), he doubted that Chen had honestly believed what his sister had been trying to sell him. Lloyd knew Chen wasn’t stupid. Before he could think more about it, Kai had already left his room, continuing his rant.

“I finally open your eyes over your crush. You literally, in weird way, went through the Five Stages of Grief with it. And you looked like you had plans to tell Chen. And now, three days later, you’re ignoring him all of sudden” he said all of that while poking a still mute Lloyd in the chest with the end of every sentence. Kai’s forest green eyes made contact with Lloyd’s bright green, going soft as the former smiled.

“Get changed, we’re going to the Noodle House and you’re going to talk with Chen Jr, because there is no way in hell that I’m letting you sabotage your own happiness, Lloyd” Kai said, smile growing wilder as he started to walk towards the upper deck, “Let’s do this before I get grey hai- Oh hi, Chen”

Lloyd, who had been following Kai with a look, felt himself freeze. Indeed, Chen was on the middle of the stairs, looking at the Red Ninja a bit relieved.

“Hey, Kai” Chen greeted back with a formal smile, “Is Lloyd here?”

And at that moment, Lloyd’s body fully took in the situation.

“yES?” he answered with an octave higher than normal. At Chen and Kai’s looks of surprise (well, the latter was actually smirking), Lloyd awkwardly cleared his throat, “Um, yeah, I’m here”, he repeated, trying not to taking in some of the glee as Chen looked momentarily stunned at catching him with his uniform. The look went off as quickly it appeared, but Lloyd allowed himself to bask on it.

He smiled back a bit nervously, but Chen only returned a tight smile, which made Lloyd feel like not only an idiot, but like an asshole for his behavior for the last days.

“Weeeeeell then!” Kai clapped his hands as he looked between Chen and Lloyd, “I’mofftoseeSkylor.Bye!”

Chen barely had time to move before Kai bolted towards the upper deck to leave the _‘Destiny Bounty’_ , leaving two late teenagers on a small tense and awkward atmosphere. Lloyd and Chen simply started at each other, neither making a move. The former finally broke the silence with a long sigh.

“So, are you going to tell me why have you suddenly been avoiding me? ‘Cause I doubt that Skylor’s excuse of you being the busiest ninja out there is true” Chen asked, cutting straight to the chase as he leaned on the wall, arms crossed. Despite that his tone didn’t carry any anger to it, Lloyd still flinched slightly at the tension on his voice.

“I…” he trailed off, letting out a sigh of his own while rubbing his eyes with his hand, “I have no excuse” he finally admitted, shoulders and hand dropping as he looked back at Chen.

“It’s not an explanation either” he replied softly, the tension seemingly leaving him. With the light of the afternoon that filters through the door, it have him a slight halo.

“True” Lloyd said a bit dryly, taking his eyes off from Chen and staring at the floor. Soft steps started to approach, until he could see a familiar pair of tennis shoes among the wooden boards.

“Is it because of what happened three days ago? ‘Cause I’m not afraid of you” Chen’s declaration made Lloyd stare back at him. The full sincerity on his face was the same that had greeted Lloyd on that night. His heart fluttered. 

“I know you aren’t, and… I couldn’t be more thankful for that” he responded with a small smile. The brunet returned a hesitant one.

“So… what’s going on?” he asked with some uncertainty. Lloyd frowned.

This was it, wasn’t it?

“I…”

_Got hit with the fact that I like you._

_Realized that I would like something to happen between us._

_I really like you, and I don’t want to lose you._

“…Came to a scary conclusion” he finally said, hating that he felt like he was lying to Chen.

“Which is?” he further inquired, tinting his head to the side while Lloyd gestured towards the upper deck and walked pass him. Stopping at the first step, Lloyd turned around to face with uncertainty.

“I don’t know if I’m ready to tell you that” he admitted, turning around quickly, hoping that Chen didn’t get to see the slight blush on his cheeks.

“And why is that?” Chen kept on asking as he followed the ninja to the upper deck, “I mean, I know we’ve only known each other for a month now, and that we both still have our secrets, but Lloyd…” he paused for a moment, eyes on the blond as he leaned over his back to the railing with his arms crossed, “I actually thought we… well…”

He looked vulnerable.

And Lloyd understood.

“Had let our guards down?” he softly finished, joining him on the railing and looking over to the waves below for a moment before looking back at Chen. Their eyes met.

“Yeah” the brunet breathed, his facial features relaxing.

“You didn’t think wrong” Lloyd replied quietly, “But… I thought about it too much, and then I got anxious” he finally revealed. Chen didn’t say anything, but his face changed to a look of understanding as he turned around and mimicked Lloyd’s pose.

They turned their faces to the horizon, taking in the sky slowly turning a soft orange amongst the blue while the water seemed to sparkle; both of them staying silent, but this time, the air wasn’t awkward. It was peaceful.

“Question number fifteen?” Chen whispered. Stealing him a quick look, Lloyd allowed himself a small smile when he caught Chen’s own.

“Go ahead” he said. The former cheerleader looked at his own hands for a moment before asking:

“Why did you call me? That night?” he was staring at Lloyd again, who kept his own gaze on the wooden railing.

“I-I wanted to talk to you” the blond started to say, not even thinking about denying it, “I had to talk to someone… and-and the only person I could think of was you” he dared himself to say that while looking at Chen, whose eyes widened a bit. He didn’t know where the sudden boldness was coming from, but Lloyd wasn’t backing down, “And the crazy thing is that I felt that I could tell you every single moment in which I’ve been through hell and that you… and that you would have understood me” he finished softly, his cheeks blushing up again. Chen didn’t say anything, but something flashed in his eyes. He was now being the one to tear his gaze away, and Lloyd could have sworn that his dark skin had gotten a bit pink.

And he was fairly sure it wasn’t the setting sun reflecting on him.

The bold feeling didn’t seem to have been gone, though. Biting his lip, Lloyd thought back to his internal debate from a few days ago.

“Chen? Why did you come for me?” he asked slowly, eyeing the brunet. Chen took in a sharp breath.

“I… I told you, I thought you shouldn’t be alone” he stammered while rubbing the back of his neck.

“But it’s not the whole truth, is it?” now Lloyd was the one pressing for the answers. Chen gaped at him for a moment, before breaking into warm laughter.

(Lloyd really wanted to kept hearing that laugh)

“You- you’re right” he said as he smirked at Lloyd, “You owe me one question, by the way”

Lloyd quickly returned the sly grin.

“I accept the consequences”

The other boy fell silent for a moment, his hazel eyes concentrated on a seemingly random point in the horizon. When he finally spoke, it was a soft whisper that threatened to be carried off by the wind that Lloyd scooped closer in order to get it.

“You reminded me of… of myself” Chen said, oblivious to Lloyd’s look of surprise, “I remembered thinking back on times in which I wished someone had been there for me, when I felt broken. When I felt that the world had turned on me” he finally turned to stare back at Lloyd, who remembered the haunted gleam he had seen on Chen’s eyes when they first met. After their conversation in the coffee shop, he had taken for granted that it was due to having been raised with Master Chen as his father. That haunted look had briefly appeared once again, and it had been gone after a few blinks. Chen himself now looked a bit hesitant over what to say next, “As soon as I heard your broken voice and your cries, I thought ‘Lloyd needs me’” he chuckled, sounding tense, “Weird, right?”

Lloyd shook his head.

“After what I said, not really” he assured him with a smile. He then smirked, “And I think we’re even again” he laughed. Chen rolled his eyes, but joined in anyway, the previous tension forgotten.

“Someone likes to keep count” he huffed as he nudged Lloyd in the shoulder, who laughed in return.

“Look who’s talking” replied the blond while retaliating the nudge. Chen shook his head, smiling. After a moment, he glanced at Lloyd.

“So… your eyes are back to being green” he pointed out.

“Oh! Uh, yeah” Lloyd chuckled, his bandaged hand running through his hair, “They are”

“Alright, I have to ask” Chen said while shaking his head, making some of his brown locks fall out on his face, “Why were they red that day, but are green most of the time?” he asked, eyes filled with curiosity.

“Oh”

The question honestly took Lloyd by surprise. He pressed his lips into a thin line. Chen noticed this, and a look of regret quickly took over his face as he told Lloyd, “You know you don’t have to answer if you’re not comfortable-”

But the blond cut him off, waving his hands and shaking his head.

“No! It’s just that…. No one has ever ask me before, that’s all” he said. Chen let out a silent “Oh” of his own as Lloyd leaned forward into the railing, staring at his blurry reflection on the water.

“I was born with red eyes” he started to explain, “I… inherited them from my dad. After the first battle with the Overlord… they suddenly turned green… we all thought it was because, well… the evil is gone, so… so must the red eyes, right?” he casted a small glance towards Chen, who looked shocked. Lloyd smiled sadly as he turned his head again into the reflection, continuing, “But turns out that unlocking my two true potentials made it happen… it’s like a camouflage. The more I use my powers, they stay green. If I don’t use them in twenty four hours or I just tire myself out, they turn back red” he finished explaining, leaning back from the edge and closing his eyes as the summer breeze hit his face.

“I never minded them…” Lloyd whispered, “I actually liked them, it was my own way of feeling closer to my father…” he opened his eyes, turning to face Chen a bit grimly, “But everyone just likes to associate red eyes with the bad guys… and suddenly I didn’t feel comfortable going around with my natural eye color” he admitted, looking down.

“Well, I like them” Chen said with a firm tone, making Lloyd look up in the same way he had done days ago.

“You actually do?” he stupidly asked before realizing his mistake, “I mean! I know what you said, you said they were beautiful, and honestly that’s like the best thing someone other than my own father has said about them and- FSM I’m rambling” he noticed, eyes going wide and suddenly feeling rather embarrassed.

But then Chen put his hand on his shoulder, looking at him with a somewhat amused smile and… was the fondness in his eyes?

“To be honest? I prefer them red over than green” he revealed, “It makes you look… it makes you look true to yourself” Chen said as he let out a nervous laugh, his other hand rubbing once again the back of his neck while he let the other fall.

Lloyd’s chest was bursting with warmth at his words.

“I- Thank you” he replied, his voice wavering at the end. But he didn’t care.

Silence fell once again, and by unspoken agreement, they both stared at the sunset again, arms thrown over the railing, shoulders put together and hands nearly brushing against each other.

Neither moved as the sun continued to sink into the horizon.

Well, Lloyd tried to keep watching it. He couldn’t stop glancing at Chen and admiring how the golden light made his brown hair get a faint glow and how it made his hazel eyes shine bright.

“You know?” Chen once again broke the silence with a soft voice, “I’ve been living on New Ninjago City for almost three years now, and I think this is the first time I’ve really admire a sunset since I was a little kid”

“Why?” Lloyd asked.

Twenty Questions seemed to have been forgotten by both teens.

“Because I used to do it with my mom” Chen whispered, glancing at Lloyd with a sad smile, “I… I know I don’t really talk about her, but… well, this was something we enjoyed doing together, Skylor would sometimes join too, when she was not busy training” he reveled.

“Tell me more about her” Lloyd found himself asking, the curiosity getting the best of him. Chen smiled, closing his eyes.

“Her name was Hoshi” he started to say, “She was kind, trusting, patient. Her favorite thing to do when I was a kid was to make-up stories and to teach Skylor how to properly control her powers” Chen chuckled, opening his eyes and looking back at Lloyd, “Sometimes I think that, if she wasn’t married to Master Chen and stuck in that island, she would have loved teaching. Or to be the storyteller of her village. Or both” he added with a smile, “She’s also the one who taught me and Skylor how to cook” Chen revealed.

“She sounds amazing” Lloyd said with a smile.

“She was” Chen confirmed, returning the smile. He narrowed his eyes at the blond while letting of a soft hum.

“What?” Lloyd asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I think she would have liked you” Chen said.

“Well, I have been told I’m charming” Lloyd replied with a small smirk.

“Oh, really?” Chen asked as he leaned in with a smirk of his own, “By who?”

Lloyd chuckled.

“If you insist on knowing” he said back, getting closer, “I happen to have quite the fan-club, even my enemies have been quite attracted to me”

“Yeah, by your powers, or so I’ve heard” Chen huffed as Lloyd pouted, “But yeah, you also got looks” he said as he leaned in closer, to the point their foreheads were touching. Lloyd felt that his cheeks were on fire, but he still shot back.

“Oh, so you admit I’m charming” he said softly, ignoring the way his heart leaped in his chest and how his stomach felt like it was suddenly full of butterflies.

“I never denied it” Chen replied with the same soft tone.

Their forehead were still touching. So did their shoulders. Their hands were now touching too.

But they didn’t let go.

This close, Lloyd could pay attention to more details on Chen’s face, from how his eyes seemed to be an endless swirl of brown and green, to tiny freckles on his nose and cheeks. On how his breathing was somehow fast and slow at the same time, and to how his lips were so, so close-

-And they were getting closer-

_“CHEN/LLOYD!”_

And like that, the moment was ruined. Both teens jumped away from each other rather quickly as Skylor and Kai barged into the deck, laughing together. Chen and Lloyd looked back at each other, both of them with red faces.

“So, did you two made up?” Kai asked. Lloyd felt like screaming at him the biggest ‘WE WERE!’

Instead, he and Chen yelled at the same time.

“Oh, yeah!”

“Totally!”

While also giving them the most awkward smiles in existence.

Kai and Skylor looked back and forth between them, giving each other a look that Lloyd couldn’t read before the red-head walked forth.

“Well then, if everything is okay…” she said as she gave her brother and Lloyd a wary look, turning to the Green Ninja at last, “I hope you don’t mind if I take away Chen, Tox fell ill and I’m gonna need him on the kitchen today” she looked back at her brother apologetically.

“Oh”

Both Chen and Lloyd looked back at each other, the moment from before still in the air, but neither said anything. Although… Chen had a strange look on his face, he almost looked… conflicted?

“So, uh…” Chen started to say, interrupting Lloyd’s thoughts, “I’m going”

“Yeah” Lloyd coughed, playing his sleeves, “Uh… Good luck cooking, I guess?”

“Thanks” Chen played with his fingers, “And uh…. Good luck patrolling the city”

“Right”

“Right”

“What is happening?” Kai whisper shouted to Skylor, who merely shrugged, the same confusion on her face.

“Well then… bye, Garmadork” Chen said with a small wave of his hand. And that being said, he took Skylor by the arm and both siblings left the _Bounty_ , leaving a behind a very confused Kai and an awkward Lloyd.

“Seriously, what the hell just happened?” Kai asked.

Lloyd refused to answer, his mind being too busy replaying that almost kiss.

* * *

 

The next morning, after not even being able to sleep for still replaying last day’s events and thinking about it numerous times, Lloyd pulled out his phone, opening the chat with Chen.

Fingers once again hovered over the screen. Yeah, the moment being interrupted had led to an awkward one. But… that didn’t mean he could try to talk about it with Chen.

Right?

He took a deep breath before typing.

** Chen the Cheerleader **

**_So…_ **

**_Do you want to hang out today?_ **

**_Or train a bit more?_ **

**_You still haven’t managed to pin me down_ **

***message seen***

He waited.

And waited.

“Maybe he’s busy…” Lloyd muttered as he got up to start training. He tried not to think about it too much.

Then why was there a new feeling of dread forming in his stomach?

Chen didn’t answer during the training.

Or at lunch.

Or the afternoon.

At nights, the calls weren’t picked up either.

The uneasy feeling grew.

It wasn’t until the next day, when Lloyd realized what was happening:

Chen was now avoiding him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I know it's been nearly a month since the last update, but I had college finals, and I had to concentrate on those and I apretiate the patience.


	10. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“But when your wounds open, you will cry,_   
> _You'll cry out now and you'll question why”_  
>  Sia (Rainbow)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING! There will be heavy implications and mentions of child abuse in this chapter.

This was karma at its best.

No, it was karma at its _worst_.                          

It was payback, a petty revenge.

And Lloyd deserved it.

He knew he did.

He had been the one who started the avoiding thing in the first place, so it was natural for Chen to do the same. Right?

In all honestly, Lloyd wasn’t sure, and he desperately wanted some kind of distraction to keep his damn thoughts away from it. But, to his frustration, in the past three days, little had happened in New Ninjago City, only minor robberies that the NCPD took easily care of. The only good small thing that had happened was that Cole and Zane informed Kai and Lloyd that they were finally reaching the Borg Industries vault in Hiroshi’s Labyrinth, promising to make another call once they got to it and made sure the Realm Crystal was still there, safe and sound and free of stalking ghosts.

But despite that little chunk of good news, Lloyd still moped, not coming out of his room unless it was for food and training.

He tried to continue texting Chen, but in his texts he never dared to mention their almost kiss. And Lloyd was certain that it had been that, because the feeling of Chen’s lips being so close to his kept haunting him. So, he tried texting about other stuff, like the new Fritz Donnegan comic issue, or the news that the ‘Mega Monster Amusement Park’ was now introducing a brand new combination of sweet and sour cotton candy, in hopes of getting a reply.

But none came. Not even a single ‘Dork’.

He kept telling himself that he deserved it, all while wondering why were his eyes stinging and his chest felt that it had been replaced with rocks and if Chen had also felt like that when Lloyd pulled this with him.

So, yeah, he was moping.

Kai had tried to talk to him about it, but Lloyd kept dismissing his concerns, plastering a fake smile and insisting he would be fine. His friend obviously didn’t believe any of it, but Lloyd had managed to become an expert in reaching his room just in time to avoid a talk since he was seventeen.

The third day became the fourth.

Lloyd woke up late in the morning, his eyes shooting wide open, feeling an uneasiness in the air. He didn’t know where to put his finger on it, but it felt like a calm before a storm. And the storm was a fast approaching one.

Siting up in his bed, the blond focused on his hearing, hoping that he could at least identify some form of danger, but the only thing he heard was Kai playing a video-game in the living room, the chirping from seagulls and the common sound of people minding their own business in the marina.

In other words, a normal morning.

But the feeling lingered in the air like smoke, and that was enough to make the young ninja anxious and to put him on edge. Surpassing a sudden shiver, Lloyd rubbed his right hand over the still bandaged one, slowly managing to unravel the band that covered it along the way. It had been starting to itch and he hadn’t really changed it. Also, a week had passed after he had gotten the cut and Chen had treated it.

That sole last thought nearly made Lloyd attempt to keep the last band on, but on the last two days the itching had been getting annoying. Once his left hand was finally free, though, Lloyd couldn’t help but stare at his hand with a dumb folded expression.

There wasn’t a crust.

There wasn’t even a scar, he also noticed as he ran a finger through were the cut had previously been. It was like Lloyd hadn’t even cut himself to begin with.

He forced the uneasy feeling aside, right now he was just confused. He was fairly sure he didn’t have any healing ability as part of his powers, even as being the First Spinjitzu Master’s grandson. Cuts, scrapes and bruises had stayed with him the same amount of time they lasted to any other person. His Uncle’s teas, as special as some of them were, didn’t had that ability either. The bands were the normal ones that came in the first aid kit and that anyone could buy at a drug store. Same with the antiseptics and ointments.

This didn’t make any sense.

And Chen hadn’t brought anything with him-

Lloyd’s train of thought came to a sudden halt.

Chen.

The young man frowned, feeling that he was rushing into things, but there was a new feeling in his gut that said that Chen had something to do with this. How, was a damn good question. Chen didn’t have any powers, he was a cook, waiter and a soon to be art student, for crying out loud!

The more Lloyd tried make sense of it, the more confusing it got. Not only that, but he felt like he knew a way to the answer, deep down. He tried going back to remembering some of the memory lessons his dad and uncle had taught him.

Sure, he could ask Chen, but… Lloyd didn’t want to risk anything.

Not yet, at least.

But then again, wouldn’t it had made sense if Chen had said, _“Oh, and by the way, your cut no longer exists. Hurray!”_

But he hadn’t. Chen had kept quiet about it. Why?

It was like a magician’s well-kept secret or a village healer that refused to give out the secret recipes for potions, and almost the same silent treatment with his mother and father and-

Wait.

A suspicion settled into him. He felt that he had the pieces of a puzzle on his hands.

Lloyd reached under his bed, where he blindly looked for one of Garmadon’s old books about Ninjago. Finally, his fingers made contact with a worn out leather cover. Grabbing it, Lloyd started flickering through the pages until he found what he was looking for. Once he was finished reading the two pages, he jumped out of the bed, took a quick shower, put his clothes on and made his way to the living room, where he basically threw himself to the couch, nearly scaring the life out of Kai.

“So, you finally decided to get out of you tower, huh?” the hothead said, looking a little relived. But Lloyd didn’t pay attention to his question.

“I got to ask you something important” he told him.

“Finally asking for relationship advice?” Kai asked with laugh, but he dropped it as soon as he took in the blond’s expression, “Sure, what is it?”

“Chen and Skylor” Lloyd cut to the chase, “Or, if you know anything about their mother. Chen told me a little about her, but I need to know if Skylor has said anything to you. Or-” he closed his eyes for a moment, “-Or Master Chen, when you pretended to join his side” he managed to say through gritted teeth. Kai looked at him warily.

“Why are you suddenly interested about that?” he tentatively asked. Lloyd hesitated for a moment, not sure on how to tell his friend about this.

“I… think” he began slowly, “That… I have discovered a secret about Chen, but I wanted to see what did you know first” he continued on, “If what you say confirms it, I’ll go ask him directly”

Kai simply raised an eyebrow, but Lloyd must have been giving him his leader face, because he let out a sigh.

“Fine” he eventually said, “But you better tell me later what’s all this about” he added, pointing menacingly at Lloyd before dropping, “Skylor hasn’t said much about her, only that she was one hell of a woman that deserved better” he reveled. Lloyd felt himself deflate.

“That’s all? She hasn’t told you were she was from? Or how did she ended up marrying Master Chen?” he inquired, refusing to give up. Kai stayed silent for a moment, face scrunch in concentration, thinking.

“I think she married Chen Sr _in_ the island. I don’t sure, when I pretended to join him, he didn’t say anything about her, but Skylor mentioned something about it passing by. As for where she was from…” the spiky-haired teen thought for another moment, Lloyd holding his breath, “If I’m not mistaken, Skylor said her mom was born on a village not far off from that island… I think it’s called Kiro-hishi? It had to do with some kind of doctor” he shrugged.

“Chiryō-shi Village” Lloyd whispered, the puzzle pieces starting to fall into place.

“Yeah! That one” Kai nodded, “Why was that so important?” he asked the blond. Lloyd was about to tell him, but the sudden loud sound from an upcoming notification from his phone and the _‘Destiny Bounty’_ control center distracted both ninjas. Kai went to the controls, mumbling about always getting interrupted when the interesting stuff was about get said, while Lloyd stayed in the living room, looking at his phone with an unreadable expression.

 

** Chen the Cheerleader **

**-We need to talk**

**-Meet me at the park**

 

Looking back at Kai, who was tinkering with the controls and speaking with Pixal about some sort of signal, Lloyd slipped away from the _Bounty_ , running towards the park like a mad detective on the search for clues, turning off his phone.

He didn’t want any interruptions.

* * *

Despite being the afternoon, the park was surprisingly empty, save for some mothers taking their younger children to a stroll and to the play in the sandboxes.

Chen was far away from the families, leaning against one of the trees that lead to a more or less secluded area in the park; wearing his cheerleading jacket and with his hands on the pockets. He didn’t call out Lloyd’s name when the blond made his line of vision, but continued to observe him as he approached. The more steps Lloyd took, the more he noticed that Chen looked tenser than he had ever seen him, not only that, but his appearance looked a bit dishelmed, eyes tired and his hair messy. It was like Chen hadn’t sleep much for the past four days.

Lloyd stopped a foot away from him.

“You know, funnily enough, I also thought about texting you about talking” he said, breaking the silence, “Or, more accurately, going straight to the Noddle House to talk about this” he continued, raising his left hand.

Chen sucked in a breath, and for a brief moment, Lloyd saw panic and acceptance pass through his face. He cast a glance to the ground, looking back at the blond with a tired gaze.

“You know” Chen said, voice equally tense as his body. It wasn’t a question, it was a fact.

“I think I do” Lloyd replied, putting down his hand before frowning, “But I also think there are more pieces to this brand new puzzle, and only you can provide them”

He never considered himself someone to demand answers, but he liked Chen enough to not want any secrets between them. Even if it meant revealing some of his.

Meanwhile, Chen nodded stiffly. Then, he indicated to Lloyd to follow him deeper into the trees, until they were near a small clearing with wooden and rock benches.

Neither sat, they only continued to stare until Lloyd decided to start talking.

“I’ll admit I freaked out when I saw my hand completely healed” he started to say, staring directly at Chen’s hazel eyes, “But then I started to think, eliminated the obvious stuff, and you came to my mind. At first, nothing made sense, starting by the fact that a) I’ve never healed like this, and b) You didn’t made a notion of mentioning it” he paused for a moment, taking in that Chen seemed to become aghast as he talked, “But then I happened to remember one of my dad and uncle’s talks about the history of Ninjago, especially considering the ones about the early villages founded shortly after my grandfather finished forming and creating Ninjago. One of those villages was called Chiryō-shi” he started directly at the brunet, “Also known as Healer’s Village”

               “This village was known for having been founded by humble healer that took in sickly individuals that had lost their path. The healer had gained a reputation for having discovered plants and herbs with healing properties, and for spending so much time around them and being the primary source of experimentation, the healer’s blood was gifted with the same healing properties that the plants and herbs she had brewed. It was said, that the healer’s children inherited the ability, and it has been passed from generation to generation” he finished the last word softly.

Chen looked impressed, but there was also some regret in his eyes. He was still tense, but while Lloyd talked, he had gained a bit of a more relaxed pose. The blond took a seat in a rock bench, thinking his next words carefully.

“I’ll admit, I’m a little mad that you didn’t told me that you can heal people-”

“It’s not something I like doing” Chen cut him off a bit sharply, “You were an exception” he added, looking away but joining Lloyd on the bench anyway, sitting so closely that their knees were nearly touching.

“Why?” he asked, “It was just a simple cut, Chen, it would have healed in time like any other”

“I know” the other boy whispered. His eyes glanced towards Lloyd, hesitant, “But… again, you were hurt, and I couldn’t stand you looking hurt in a way that I couldn’t fix. And then you showed me that ridiculous cut, and I thought…” he gulped while Lloyd felt his eyes widen in surprise.“To be honest, I didn’t think, I just wanted to do it” Chen finally said, turning to look at the blond properly, “And… and I also thought that you wouldn’t notice. I… may have thought you heal fast, being the grandson of the First Spinjitzu Master and all. I’m sorry” he added sheepishly. Lloyd managed to get out of his little shock at the confession, calming down his sudden fast-beating heart, and surprised himself by chuckling at Chen’s apology.

“Apology half accepted, you still haven’t said what you wanted to talk about” he replied with a half-smile. He paused for a moment, eyes casting to his knees, letting out a breath before adding a bit quietly, “And you also own me an explanation over why you decided to avoid me back”

Silence took over the park. Chen was back to being as tense and rigid as he had been a few minutes ago. He took a deep breath, let it out, averted his gaze from Lloyd to look around the clearing, before finally setting on keeping his eyes on his hands.

“It… it actually has to do with…” he stuttered, his voice just barely a murmur, “With what you said”

“What?” Lloyd said while feeling a growing concern towards Chen as he spoke the last sentence. The feeling of dread that had woke him up in the morning momentarily passed through his body, “Chen, what’s going on?” he didn’t mean to sound demanding, but he getting more and more worried as Chen got up and stared pacing in front of him.

“Listen, Lloyd” the brunet addressed him with mild distress on his voice, “I…What I’m about to tell you, I haven’t told anyone. Only Skylor knows and that’s because she was present when it happened-” he stopped, taking a deep breath as he took in Lloyd’s furrowed brow, “I just… when I’m finished, please keep in mind… I’m still me” Chen asked in a pleading tone. His hazel eyes had a shine to them, as if he was trying to hold back tears.

“Chen?” Lloyd whispered with worry, preparing to get up and rush to his side. But the brunet shook his head and briefly raised his hands to ask him to stay in place, to which Lloyd hesitantly complied. Chen didn’t start his new tale immediately, for a minute, he simply hugged himself and stared at his feet, biting his lower lip with enough force that when he finally looked up, it was swollen.

“As you figured out… my mom was the last descendant with the healing gift of Chiryō-shi, and she was also the Elemental Master of Amber. It had been considered a miracle that she had both powers, everyone had been betting that only one of them would prevail, but she proved them wrong, managing to skill both powers with ease” Chen started to explain, voice surprisingly steady, despite coming out in murmurs, “After Master Chen got banished into his island, she tagged along. Not because she was in love with him then, but she thought it was kinda unfair to be sent there without a healer” he let out a small snort, and Lloyd remembered that Chen had described his mother as a caring figure.

               “And over time… she came to think that Master Chen wasn’t so bad, he would bring her flowers, built her a house on the damn island aside from the main palace, order Ronin, Clouse and his servants to treat her like a queen” the bitterness in his voice made a strange detail in the already tense atmosphere in the park, “They got married, and shortly after Skylor was born” Chen then seemed to attempt to make himself look smaller, as he somehow managed to grips his arms harder and again lowered his head, like he was ashamed about what he was going to say next, “And then… six years later… my mom gave birth to me”

The last sentence was spoken so low that for a moment Lloyd thought he had misheard Chen. And when it finally cliqued in his head that no, he had heard right, his brain went haywire.

Chen and Skylor had a six year difference.

Skylor was the same age as the Ninja, she would turn nineteen in November.

Chen had mentioned to Lloyd, in one their training sessions, that he was already nineteen. That detail had completely slipped through the young ninja’s head. He and Kai had simply assumed they were twins.

_Idiot._

Lloyd made the mental math on his head, coming to a horrifying conclusion.

No.

It was… it was impossible unless-

He turned to stare at Chen, who was looking slightly pale and more vulnerable than Lloyd could remember him being. Despite that, he was staring at Lloyd with sad eyes and a resigned face. For Chen’s sake, the blond quickly regained his composure, taking in a deep breath before asking, “What happened to you?”

With his eyes now posing the haunted look that Lloyd had detected in him when they first met, the Green Ninja already knew the answer before Chen even opened his mouth to continue.

“Hell” he muttered with venom and choking back tears. Before Lloyd knew it, he had gotten up got and had crushed Chen in a hug. The other boy initially kept his tense posture, but soon he gave in and returned the gesture, both of them holding tightly.

“You don’t have to continue” Lloyd whispered while backing down the sudden new surge of anger towards the former criminal master-mind. How dare he-

“N-no, I _need_ to tell you this” Chen said, breaking the hug and placing both hands on the blond’s shoulders, “I don’t want to keep this secret from you… and you were going to find out any way, sooner or later” he admitted, lowering his head. Lloyd pressed his lips into a thin line, but he suspected Chen wasn’t going to back down, despite the clear emotional turmoil it was giving him.

“Okay” he softly replied. The brunet let out a shaky sigh before lowering himself to the ground, Lloyd following, his arms still supporting and not letting go of Chen.

“Master Chen” the other boy resumed, “Despite already having a daughter with elemental powers and managing to brain wash her into his cause, thought it would be better and more fun to have two heirs to his soon to be empire,” he swallowed, “He then came to remember that I didn’t have elemental powers, and started acting like I didn’t even existed. In all honestly, that was fine with me”

               “But then one day, Skylor and I got into a little fight. I scrapped my knee. It healed before my mom got to me to treat it. And that’s when Master Chen realized that I wasn’t useless, that I had gotten the healing gene. I was a kid, I didn’t know how to control that small power… but he tried to coax the gene out of me by…” Chen paused, looking down, “By testing… me” he finished with a hoarse voice before letting out a shuddered breath. He casted a small glance towards Lloyd, who in return gave him a light squish in the shoulder.

“I told you, he wasn’t father material at all” Chen whispered before setting his sight back to the grass, “I tried to resist, but his ‘punishments’ and ‘tests’ got worse. My mom… my mom had long ago noticed Master Chen wasn’t the man she had married, and she tried with all her might to stop him…” the hazel eyes were glistering and his voice was wavering, while Lloyd’s stomach sank. He had a faint idea of what was coming next.

“And then… one day, when I was eight years old, he got more violent than usual with me…” Chen said, “I-I don’t remember much, what he was doing, but… I do remember…closing my eyes… and then… mom was…was dead-” he choked, his eyes shutting as a sob escaped him and his eyes shredded salty tears. Lloyd kept his hold on him, drawing circles on Chen’s back in an attempt of comfort. He found himself wishing he could say something, but Lloyd didn’t really knew how it was to lose a parent that tragically. His own father had gone a peaceful death, despite not being in the most ideal situation.

Silence filled the air, the only sound being the wind strongly picking up in the trees as Lloyd brought Chen closer to him. The brunet didn’t push him away, but leaned into his touch while he tried to calm down.

“Forgive me for jumping into another conclusion, but… things got worse after that, didn’t they?” the blond asked tentatively. Chen mumbled a dry “Yeah” before taking in a deep breath and continuing on with his tale.

“It was like I had no one to protect me; Skylor was too afraid to say something, Ronin too. Master Chen would look me in my room and leave me there for hours, saying that I deserved it for killing my mom while planning his new move in obtaining power” he bitterly spoke.

(Lloyd may or may have not pulled out a chunk of grass in order to canalize his still growing anger)

(The action may have also briefly brought a small smile on Chen’s lips, breaking the grim look on his face, but it was gone too quickly for Lloyd to properly notice it)

“And… one day… shortly after I turned eleven… I managed to catch a glimpse of Master Chen’s power with that stupid staff” Chen revealed.

“Zane” Lloyd immediately guessed as the brunet nodded.

“I… I honestly thought that… after he took away Zane’s powers and started planning sending Skylor and Clouse to the city with in order to trick all remaining Elemental Masters with that ridiculous tournament, Master Chen would stop paying attention to me and leave me alone” he confessed, letting out a defeated sigh, “I was wrong”

“He came into the house one day… whistling, with his hands behind his back. He never did that” Chen whispered, “And he said… that it was time I had to grow up, to become a man, that I truly went into the family business” he gulped, “Clouse had orders to trash my belongings, and Ronin was required to hold Skylor down... I think it was the only time she rebelled in Master Chen’s presence for my sake” there was tiny bit of gratitude in his tone. He then bit his lip.

“As for Master Chen, he… he… grabbed me… and… and forced me to drink something” he quietly revealed, “And suddenly, my clothes were too tight, too short, my mind felt cleared of something, my voice was not the same and Skylor was almost the same height as me”

“He made you drink Tomorrow’s Tea” Lloyd whispered, “It makes the user age to a desired age, according to how it was brewed” he explained as Chen looked back at him with some confusion, “It’s a rare and highly dangerous tea to make…” he trailed off as it finally hit him the fact that Chen was just like him.

_Just like him on being robbed of childhood._

Destiny…. Was a bitch.

Lloyd was so stunned over that fact that he nearly missed Chen had started to talk again.

“-So I’m guessing you don’t want to be around me anymore” he was saying as he got up dejectedly.

“Wait- what?!” Lloyd said with some slight panic, standing up as well, “What makes you think I don’t want to be around you anymore?” he asked. When Chen didn’t provide an answer, Lloyd shook his head.

“You told me, pleaded me, before you revealed all of this, for me to still consider you as you” he told the brunet while taking his hands into his, choosing to ignore the slight spark that ran through his body, “And I do, Chen. You’re still the same guy I awkwardly talked to in the middle of taking an order, you’re still the same cheerleader that occasionally sends a cheer text just to annoy me, you accuse me of being a dork when you are one too” he felt a little breathless saying that, and the other young man was looking at him with slight shock and wonder, “You’re still Chen” he finished softly.

“Magical tea be damned?” Chen asked a bit uncertain. Lloyd smiled, feeling the heat on his cheeks.

“Magical tea be damned” he confirmed. He then paused, coming to another realization.

_He could tell Chen about-_

“Lloyd?” Chen warily asked when he noticed his sudden silence. Lloyd shook his head giving him a small smile, wondering if what had been on his mind was a good idea at the moment.

“Actually… there’s something you should know about me too” the blond finally said, deciding to listen to his heart instead of his brain, “I-”

But before he could even utter another word, the wind started to pick up again, this time violently. Another sound could be heard among the branches and leaves hitting each other, but Lloyd couldn’t make a description out of it. His body tensed up, as the feeling that woke him up in the morning came back in full swing. Instinctively, he turned around from Chen, putting him behind his back for protection.

“Did you hear that?” Chen quietly asked. So he too had heard it.

“Yeah” Lloyd answered in the same quiet tone as the wind howled and the other sound, this time a bit more loudly, resonated in the small clearing.

It almost sounded like a laugh…

For a moment, Lloyd thought of Morro, but then he remembered that despite all the torture he put the young man through, he swore off evil after dying (again).

The laughter came back, again more loudly than last time.Chen squeezed Lloyd’s left shoulder, and despite that he wasn’t really looking at him, he knew he was alert as he was.The laughter came again, coming out as terrifyingly familiar, just when a shimmering light made itself known in the clearing. When the light died out, Lloyd pulled Chen closer to him while simultaneously raising his now glowing right hand.

Behind him, Chen let out a horrified gasp.

“Well, isn’t this just a pleasant greeting?” the ghostly form of Master Chen was giving both late teens a sardonic smile, “Hello, Green Ninja. Hello… son”

“You” Chen whispered.

“Me” the former cult leader replied with a cheeky tone, “I see you’re still alive. And you Green Ninja,” he addressed Lloyd with a smirk, “Are looking almost like a copy of Garmadon now. Tell me, when do the extra limps come out?” he laughed at his own joke.

Behind Lloyd, Chen had started to tremble like a leaf. Personally, Lloyd didn’t blame him.

 _“_ _But how was Master Chen still in the living realm?”_ he thought as he warily scanned Master Chen with his eyes; same ridiculous cult clothes, along with the snake-like accessory around his neck. And in the ghost’s right hand, a faintly glowing crystal that Lloyd was quick to recognize.

Master Chen chuckled when he saw the shock in the blond’s eyes.

“Oh, you like it? I got it a few hours ago” he said as mindlessly tossed the Realm Crystal in the air before caching it again, “It only took me a month to find it. Well…” he paused, “It took me months to learn who had a map to it first, and then it took the month, yeah”

“You’re the ghost who possessed Ronin” Lloyd whispered, as another realization hit him like a wave, “What have you done to Zane and Cole?!” he demanded.

But the ghost merely waved him off.

“The robot and the other boy? It was fun to leave them trapped in that vault, but not as fun as tricking them into it first” he gave a chuckle that sent chills down Lloyd’s spine as his mind whirled. So the call that he and Kai got in the _Bounty_ ….

He angrily shot the energy beam at Master Chen, who sank into the ground and reemerged near the two teens.

“Now, now, let’s not waste our energy here” the ghost said in a bored tone, “As much as powerful and unique your power is, young Garmadon, I didn’t come for you” he continued as he gave Chen a cruel smile, “Oh, don’t give me that scared look, Junior, you’re not a child anymore”

“No thanks to you” Chen spat with venom, beating Lloyd by mere seconds.

The ghost snarled.

“Ungrateful brat” he growled, “Gentlemen, mind giving this man a hand?” he asked to seemingly no one.

But then three figures emerged from the bushes.

“You got to be kidding me” Lloyd muttered as Peine, Kłopot and Vaivata, along with Master Chen formed a circle around him and Chen. For the moment, the ninja wanted to believe that the four working together was just a cruel coincidence.

“Long time no see, huh?” Vaivata smiled before charging at them. Lloyd fired more energy beams at him and Master Chen, the former got thrown over to the other side of the clearing, but the latter dodged each one of them. Chen, on the other hand, had managed to expertly avoid two punches Peine and Kłopot threw at him.

“I don’t have time for dances, boys!” Master Chen yelled, “Just grab the weak one!” he turned towards Lloyd, “I’ll take care of the guard dog” he advanced towards the blond as he raised the Realm Crystal, “Wonder where should I send you?” the ghost smiled as he dodged another attack from Lloyd, who was also trying to keep an eye on Chen.

He was still managing to keep avoiding any attacks from Peine and Kłopot, much to the Green Ninja’s relief.

But that relief was cut short when he noticed Vaivata approaching Chen from behind with a stick that was emitting short bolts of electricity.

“CHE-UMF!”

Master Chen had thrown his fist onto Lloyd’s stomach, literally taking the air out of him as Chen screamed when the stick clashed on his back. Both of them fell to the floor with a loud ‘thud’.

Chen didn’t move, the only thing giving away that he wasn’t dead was the slight twitching of his hands, while the three gang members laughed. Peine even kicked the unconscious brunet about four times just for apparent fun.

Lloyd, on the other hand, still had Master Chen’s hand sticking on his stomach. He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t move, as much as he tried to. Black spots danced along his vision, and the ghost was smiling with cruelty at him, just like he was doing before taking Lloyd’s powers away in the Tournament of Elements.

“I would kill you, off course” Master Chen reveled, his voice starting to sound distant, “But I’ve been told someone else had bigger plans for you in the future, so it would be a pit of a party popper of my part to simply take their upcoming fun away…”

And everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *waving a white flag* I got a confession to make. This is the chapter that officially took off LITD. My main plan was always Lloyd and Chen meeting each other and becoming friends, but I had to give Chen a backstory, and I was thinking and well… this happened. And before I knew it, I added a full story.
> 
> As for the title chapter... yeah I know 'Rainbow' doesn't really fit, considering what just went down, but they say that after a storm a rainbow shall appear (Chen telling Lloyd his past) but I think that rainbows can appear before one too (The small little moment between them before Master Chen came)
> 
> You may proceed to chase me with pitchforks for the cliffhanger.
> 
> ALSO, I feel that I have to apologize for making a few slow updates, but my new college classes are a bit more demanding, and I want to give my best to them.
> 
> Anyway, let me know what you thought about this chapter.


	11. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“And I'd give up forever to touch you,_   
> _'Cause I know that you feel me somehow”_  
>  Goo Goo Dolls (Iris)

He felt cold, like he had been soaked entirely with freezing high mountain water. Maybe he had been, something was dripping on him.

There were voices in the distance. Lloyd couldn’t make out what they were saying though, they sounded so faint…

….Someone had started tapping his cheeks with unnecessary force…

…His heartbeat was loud on his ears, as if his own body was urgently insisting that he had to wake up-

_“_ _-oyd!”_

_“_ _-ke up!”_

Great, now his shoulders were being shaken.

“If you do that with anymore force, I think his head with fall down rolling-”

“-Ronin, _shut up_ -”

“-Lloyd, come on!”

“-Oh, FSM, allow me”

Someone was now leaning on his ear.

“Sorry about this” Skylor’s voice was soft. But why was she apolo-?

SLAP!

Lloyd let out a gasp of pain as his head was thrown to the side, his eyelids shutting down with more force. Letting out a small whimper, he opened his eyes with difficulty. Ronin, Kai and Skylor were looking at him with worry.

“…Ouch” he mumbled to Skylor, who gave him a small smile. However, it was quickly wiped out by concern her eyes searching around for something. If Lloyd had to guess, she was looking for-

“Lloyd,” Kai began with a serious tone, “Zane and Cole called and you-”

“Master Chen is back” Lloyd cut him off, straight to the chase. He more awake now, noticing that it was raining softly and that’s why he felt wet. FSM, how long had he been unconscious? The others were barely even soaked.

“We know” Skylor grimly replied, with Ronin nodding behind her, “Kai told me and Ronin, and someone tried to vandalize the Noodle Shop, throwing rocks attached with notes off things my father was personally said to me, along with terrible messages towards Chen-”

“He has Chen” Lloyd informed her with slight pants as he tried to get up with Kai’s help. His head was spinning and his stomach hurt from the fist the cult leader had sucked into him. He also felt mild panic settling into him, “He has Chen, he- he came for him, along with the thugs that attacked Chen back on Nya’s birthday” he explained, nearly stumbling on this feet before grabbing Kai’s gi to prevent a fall while all the color drained from Skylor’s face.

“FSM…” she mumbled with a quivering voice, stumbling back in the benches, joined by Kai and Lloyd seconds later.

“Yeah, okay, I thought you kids were in trouble, but now he’s fucked” Ronin said. Skylor and Lloyd proceeded to glare at him, “I’m just stating the facts” he quickly added as he raised his hands in surrender, “Skylor, you know how your father treated the kid, if he took him…” he trailed off, looking away from the ninja. Skylor hid her still pale face behind her hands as Kai put his hand on her shoulder.

Lloyd stared at the ground, as fear and panic became a whirl through his body. The monster that Chen had grown up fearing was back and had taken him hostage to do who knew what to him. Simply thinking of terrible horrors the dead cult leader would probably do to Chen and disgusting images of a bloody and broken body settled dread on the blond’s stomach.

“We’ll save him” Lloyd stated, closing his fists as he got up and looked back at the others, “If we hurry now, we can save Chen from whatever the hell they want to do to him!” he didn’t realize he had raised his voice by the end of the sentence. Skylor stared back, her face stricken yet determined.

“Oh, I definitely like you” she said with a small smile as she and Kai got up.

“But you like me more, right?” Kai cut in.

“You two are dating” Ronin deadpanned. Lloyd simply rolled his eyes before intending on walking away from the clearing.

“Whoa, whoa, wait up there Prince Charming” Kai said as he grabbed Lloyd by the arm, “We don’t even know where the crazy-for-the-snakes Master Chen is keeping Chen Jr”

“I’m aware of that” Lloyd replied with a small glare, “But I think we could use the _‘Destiny’s Bounty’_ to check on face recognition thanks to the Borg satellite signals, since Peine and his two other buddies are already in the NCPD system. We find them, we find Chen”

“Smart move” Skylor agreed. Without any more comment, they started to run towards the _‘Bounty’_.

“Kai?” Lloyd panted as they neared closer, “Are Zane and Cole-?”

“They’re fine” Kai assured him, “A little shocked and a little pissed that Master Chen managed to trick them into locking themselves in the vault, but Zane managed to do some wiretapping on the guard droids to send the signal to us”

“I’m sorry for not being there” Lloyd felt his voice quiver, “Maybe I could have prevented this-”

“It wasn’t your fault, Lloyd” Kai soothed him as they finally arrived at their base. Lloyd gave his best friend a shaky nod before he headed to the controls and typed out the names of Peine, Kłopot and Vaivata in the system while praying to his grandfather for the results to come fast.

He only hoped for Chen to keep his head up high.

(And he somehow had the feeling he was)

“Am I the only one who would like to know how Master Chen is still around the living realm instead of the Cursed Realm? Or how he even survived the water and missile combination Nya threw at him on the last Day of the Departed” Kai’s inquiry brought Lloyd’s attention out of his thoughts, “And what exactly he wants with Chen?” he added after glancing at the blond.

“I have no idea how he survived. The only thing he said is that he was there to take Chen” Lloyd started to say, “But why would he also need the Realm Crystal? Chen plus Realm Crystal doesn’t really add up”

“My father was always obsessed with something regarding Chen’s blood, I can bet my life that he kidnapped my brother because of that” Skylor admitted with slight hesitation, with Ronin nodding in confirmation. Lloyd honestly hoped no one noticed how he went still for a moment.

“Okay?” Kai with uncertainty, “Are we talking like… vampires or-?”

“I’ve got the results from the satellite scan” Pixal’s voice had never sounded so miraculous to Lloyd. The four of them brought their whole attention the screens and when the results showed, Lloyd felt his soul drop to his feet.

“The island” Skylor muttered, “Off course”

“That place is huge” Ronin piped in, “They could have taken the kid anywhere in there”

“Not really” Skylor said as she turned towards them with a triumphant smile, “My father always had a thing for the fancy”

“So it’s the same damned palace as before?” Kai estimated, “You’d think that being a criminal mastermind would make you plan better hiding places”

“Well, that’s what you’re supposed to do in the first place” Lloyd said with a small frown as he kept on gazing at the location, “You should always have at least two hiding places, three if better, but four is too much unless you have committed murder”

Ronin and Skylor gaped at him while Kai simply inclined his head.

“Darkley’s?” the Red Ninja guessed.

“It’s Basic Villainy 101” Lloyd replied with a wave of his hand, “It would be normal to have a group of henchmen on one location and the other to host the bad guys…” he trailed off, a thought settling onto him, “You don’t think-?”

“That the idiots of Peine, Kłopot and Vaivata are a diversion?” Skylor finished for him, “I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s all the actually serve for, really”

“Maybe they were working for Master Chen all along” Ronin mussed in the background. Lloyd hadn’t even realized he left their side to check out the weapons cabinet, “When we found out that it was the map what had been stolen, we traced it to a location that ended up being a trap. And the guys refused to give out their boss” he used a sword to point at the screen, “I think we should be wary of more people waiting for us”

“Then you and Kai will take care of them” Lloyd commanded, “Skylor and I will look for Chen”

If any of them had any problem with the sudden choice of teams, they didn’t voice it, much to the blond’s relief. As Kai and Skylor joined Ronin in getting weapons, Lloyd made a quick spinjitzu, his soaked clothes changing into his green gi. When he turned around, Kai was handling him his katanas, along a small blade that he recognized as one of Nya’s spares and a metal bracelet that he had never seen before.

“A little gift from Cyrus Borg” his friend said, answering Lloyd’s unspoken question, “The bracelet can separate and become two, and it’s also anti-ghost possession” he added with a small smirk while Skylor made her Elemental Dragon appear and Lloyd hid one bracelet and the blade on his uniform while putting the other on his right wrist.

“It was supposed to be a birthday gift, father heard about your past interactions with ghosts and decided to send it a little while after the alert for safe keeping, unaware of our current situation. However, I agree with Kai’s decision to hand it over early” Pixal informed from the computer.

“Is everything a coincidence today?” Lloyd couldn’t help but ask in an incredulous tone while Kai laughed before making his own dragon appear and Ronin climbed into the back of it.

“Where’s yours?” the ex-thief asked.

Lloyd tried on clearing his head in order to bring forth his own Elemental Dragon, but his mind was treacherous at times like these, he couldn’t help on thinking of Chen. How he had been trembling when he told him his story, how he had reacted when Master Chen appeared, the look of terror in his eyes, his unconscious body lying in the grass-

“I can’t” he felt like he was shocking when he spoke, looking up at Kai with distress, “I’m… I’m-”

“Too terrified for Chen’s well-being” Kai guessed with alarm, turning to Skylor, “He can’t conjure up the Elemental Dragon like this” he briefly explained before turning back to the blond, how had started to pace around the wooden floor.

“Lloyd-”

But said young man was just wrapped on his anxious thoughts to even properly acknowledge Kai’s attempts to calm him down.

“What if we’re too late?” he muttered, hugging himself, “What if I never see him again? What if I lose him?! WHAT IF-?!”

SLAP!

In the background, Kai made an incomprehensible sound while Skylor was giving Lloyd a combination of an apologetic, worried and expecting face, her right hand still extended after hitting the blond, who merely blinked, his anxiety and fear literally having been smacked away.

“I needed that” he admitted, still a little stunned yet grateful. The red-head nodded slightly before grabbing him by the shoulders.

“Listen, I know we don’t talk much” Skylor started to say, “I’ve been afraid of Chen’s well-being for years, and now this is my biggest nightmare. In all honestly, I’m just as terrified as you are” she stated, her amethyst eyes piercing into Lloyd’s green, “Now here’s the thing: what’s keeping me going, and I’m sure as hell that it’s the same for you, is that my brother needs me, he needs you, he needs those who care for him deeply. Concentrate on that, Lloyd, don’t let the ‘what if’s’ prevent you from coming to Chen’s rescue” her voice was gentle and yet fierce, and Lloyd allowed himself to believe her.

He could do this.

Closing his eyes, he thought of the closest moments with Chen, him ranting about the variety of colors on the world, reading a comic-book together, sitting close and simply enjoying the music coming from the phone, training and laughing. Lloyd soon felt his Elemental Dragon form below him. Opening his eyes, he sent Skylor a thankful grin from on top of his energy dragon before turning to Kai and Ronin, who initially looked shocked before their faces turned determined once Skylor once again formed her own dragon.

And they took towards the sky.

* * *

If there was one thing that Lloyd loved about the Elemental Dragons was that they were insanely fast. Five minutes into their flight, they could start to see the blurry image of Master Chen’s island on the horizon.

As they continued to approach, Lloyd noticed that sometimes Skylor’s own dragon will flicker a tiny bit before regaining a solid form. He and Kai shared a worried look before flying their own respective dragons to each of the Amber Dragon’s side.

“It goes to you too, you know” Lloyd voiced over the coms in the mask to the worried red-head, “We’ll get him back, Skylor. And Chen is a survivor, he’s holding on” the last part was a close feeling in his heart, but he somehow knew it to be true.

Skylor simply nodded slightly, but her eyes were sad.

“Lloyd, you don’t know what my father has done to Chen-” she started to say, but Lloyd interrupted her.

“Oh, but I do know” he revealed as the red-head looked at him with disbelief though her orange mask, “That’s why he wanted to meet with me. He explained… I… I _know_ , Skylor” he empathized softly. The Elemental Master of Amber took a sharp inhale of air, Ronin let out an impressed “Huh” and Kai simply stared sideways with confusion written on his eyebrows.

“Chen told you?” she whispered. Lloyd nodded, and Skylor let out a shaky laugh, “FSM, you’re really, really special to him”

“Okay, I think I’m missing something here?” Kai said. Skylor turned to him with a guilty look on her eyes, but before she could say something, Ronin beat her to it.

“Kinda like the savior of Ninjago here, the kid was introduced to Tomorrow’s Tea, simple as that” the former thief explained to the Red Ninja.

“Wait-WHAT?!” Skylor and Kai yelled at the same time as they whirled to look back at Lloyd, who nodded slowly in confirmation. He could see the question of ‘You too?’ dancing on Skylor’s eyes, but ignored it, instead turning to Ronin.

“Ronin, how do you-?”

“Morro, he mentioned it when he forced me to work for him. The guy found it funny” he revealed to the Green Ninja, “By this point I had left Master Chen’s service, the buying of that tea was the last trip I ever made there” he shook his head, regret clear on his eyes.

Suddenly, Ronin’s words on his destroyed shop made more sense. Lloyd gave him a small nod before turning back to the other two ninjas. Kai was muttering something along the lines of “Asshole”, “Meant to be” and “Off course” while Skylor simply stood quiet.

“How?” she finally asked while keeping an eye on the fast approaching island. Kai and Lloyd let out a sigh.

“Long story, babe” the Red Ninja replied, “Just don’t play with a magical weapon of creation and a pile of antique bones”

Skylor frowned, but thankfully nodded in understanding before starting back into the horizon as they got close to the eastern coast of the island.

“We’ll have to split here” she informed the small team, “Kai, Ronin, if there really is a team with the plans to cause a distraction in the palace, then it would be wise to fly down over the shore”

Kai and Ronin nodded, giving out a small “Good luck” before turning the Red Ninja turned his fire dragon onto the right.

“What about us?” Lloyd inquired to the Elemental Master beside him.

“After what you said about another hiding place, I’m pretty sure where my father and Chen are” Skylor said, “We… we really didn’t had our upbringing in the palace” she revealed, eyes unfocused into a memory before she turned towards him, “If there is no danger in the palace, Ronin will know where to go”

With that being said, she commanded her dragon to lower into the ocean, Lloyd soon following. The water below them was as grey as the clouds on the sky, and sometimes a wave would spike onto the would-be-belly of the dragons. The island shore now seemed to be trying to hide behind some ocean mist, and Lloyd became worried about crashing onto some rocks, but Skylor kept leading the way with ease until finally there only sand and jungle ahead of them.

Both of them dissolved their respective Elemental Dragons and landed quietly onto the ground, and Skylor once again took the lead, advancing towards the mass vegetation. Their steps were quick and yet cautious in case of guards hiding in between the trees and bushes, but thankfully no one appeared.

“Skylor?” Lloyd whispered as they rounded a corner, “Where exactly are we heading?”

“My father, when courting my mother, made his servants build her a house around this place” she quietly replied while passing a decaying part of the palace.

“Chen mentioned it” Lloyd admitted, mind drifting to their last conversation, “Is that where you guys lived, then?” he guessed.

She nodded stiffly.

“Born and raised. Life wasn’t so bad here at first, mother would sometimes take me and Chen out of the island once a year to visit the main land, including her village. But then…” Skylor gave him an uncertain glance, and it dawned to Lloyd that she didn’t knew about him also knowing Chen’s second best kept secret.

“Your father discovered Chen had the healing gene” he finished softly. Despite the fact that they were wearing their masks, Lloyd was fairly certain she was gaping at him, even going as far as to stop momentarily their movements to simply stare.

“He really told you everything” Skylor let out another shaky laugh, “Oh, when we get out of this place, I’m going to-”

But a blood curling scream interrupted her.To make things worse, Lloyd recognized to who it belonged and so did Skylor.

Small talk was forgotten, the only thing in their minds was running, dodging rock and branch with the grace and agility that made them ninjas; time looked like an enemy. Lloyd’s heart was racing with fear, rage, and adrenaline. _“_

 _Please,”_ he silently prayed, _“Grandfather, fates, anyone, please, let me, let us save him in time. Don’t take him away from me, **please**!”_ he could feel his eyes stinging, but he forced his emotional turmoil down just as Skylor came to a sudden halt and pushed him behind a large rock that was covered in hydras. The Green Ninja looked at her strangely, she simply gave a slight head gesture towards the other side before pressing a finger to her lips. He got the message.

From their new hiding spot, they could hear some faint voices in the background. Giving Skylor a small glance, Lloyd dared a small peak over the boulder to make a better surveillance over their surroundings. The first thing that greeted him was a stone house in the middle of what in another time would have been a large clearing, but it was now covered with wild plants and long grass, alongside the jungle vegetation that was part of the island. The house itself looked decayed and abandoned by time, with the front wooden doors heavily decorated with mold and hydra, and the windows dusty. One in the top floor, however, was opened and looked cracked, yet it was not somehow not broken. It seemed to be the only entrance to use in order to avoid the front doors.

Peine and Vaivata were currently walking around the front porch, armed with electric batons and chains. From his position, Lloyd could also clearly see knife pouches resting on their hips.

“I can’t see Kłopot” he whispered as he turned back to Skylor, “He’s either inside the house or he’s expecting Kai and Ronin’s assault in the Palace”

“If he’s inside the house, we have a major disadvantage” she murmured with a frown, “The residence inside is not big, and with three people in there along with the abandoned furniture we got a cramped space to fight. It will be worse if backup comes” she revealed, making a small peak of her own before turning back towards Lloyd, “One of us will have to make a distraction”

“But what about Kai and Ronin’s assault? There’s the possibility of those two leaving to help the others” Lloyd said, gaining a frown of his own. The Orange Ninja nodded in agreement.

“However, knowing my father, they can also try to bring more security here” Skylor pointed out. Lloyd pursed his lips together, knowing she was right. One of them would have to act as distraction and possible guard dog while the other handled the rescue and faced Master Chen alone. Reluctantly, he started to get the anti-ghost bracelet of his wrist and to get the spare one from his pocket.

“What are you doing?” Skylor hissed. Lloyd raised an eyebrow.

“I have a better advantage of causing a distraction” he said, feeling like he was stating the obvious as he gestured his gi and the jungle around, “And you know that house. And your father. You have the advantage on rescuing Chen” he lowered his eyes to the ground as his voice came out in a whisper _. “Not me”_ was left unspoken.

Another scream filled the jungle, followed this time by the sound of an object breaking inside the house. Lloyd felt his breath hitch and would have jumped over the boulder to run towards the house if it weren’t for Skylor yanking him to the ground. With a speed that he didn’t even knew she possessed, the femme-fatale put once again the bracelet on Lloyd’s wrist and shoved the spare on his hand.

“Yeah, but I was raised around here _and_ Peine and Vaivata hate my guts even more” she simply said, eyes determined and now with a slight tint of green as she whispered, “Keep him safe”

And just like that, she was gone, leaving a shocked Lloyd on the ground. A minute passed and then…

“IT’S THE GREEN NINJA!”The thug’s alert nearly made him hold his breath as he quickly took a defensive position before realizing that the tell-tale sound of running across the jungle were making themselves distant, soon leaving him alone in the clearing.

_Alone._

Lloyd blinked before shaking his head in order to concentrate. Skylor had provided the distraction by copying his powers. This gave him an advantage on Master Chen, who would mostly likely had heard the thugs warning and must now be expecting his eldest daughter.

The air suddenly felt still as he got up and rounded the house through the tall grass and vegetation until he got to the wall that had the already opened window. Maybe that entrance wasn’t the best idea, as Master Chen and Kłopot could be waiting for him right there, but Lloyd had to take the risk.

Carefully creating small holes with his powers to serve as leverage, he got up quite quickly, pausing just next to the window with his back against the wall and his hearing in full focus; and after he made sure that there was no one on the other side, Lloyd quietly climbed the frame and landed softly in a small room.

Or, at least what was supposed to be a room. There was broken furniture almost everywhere, from chairs to bookshelves, and a thick level of dust and sand decorated the wooden floor along burnt, thorn papers and destroyed pencils. A white door strained with dry wine towards the left led to a fairly spaced bathroom, while towards the right, next to the wall, lay a small bed which could have been only fitted for a small person, or-

_"-Clouse had orders to trash my belongings-”_

“FSM…” Lloyd whispered when it finally dawned to him where exactly he was standing.

Loud yelling made him become more alert once again. In front of him was the door of the room, which in turn led to a hallway that ended in a round staircase. Lloyd cautiously made it out of Chen’s childhood bedroom, willing the wooden floor to ease the cracks and creaking sounds as he made it further out and found himself at the edge of the stairs, moving quickly towards a shadowed spot provided by a hanging chandelier and disheveled shelves.

From his new hiding place, Lloyd was lucky to discover that he had a full view of the bottom end of the stair and what he assumed was the living room. It was also a mess, with turned sofas and destroyed books and ragged curtains. To add confusion, there were also a tangled mess of wires alongside the broken furniture. And in the middle of all, there was a hovering yet furious looking Master Chen and Kłopot and-

Lloyd’s breath hitched and felt a surge of anger flow through his veins.

All-tied up in a chair with heavy chains and a lock made out of vengestone, was Chen. Kłopot was currently holding him by the hair, forcing him to keep his head high and making a display of the blood all over his nose and forehead. That sight alone nearly made Lloyd jump out of his hiding spot in order to blast Kłopot and Master Chen out and take Chen far away from there, but logic quickly kicks that thought down. Crashing into there just like that could only end badly.

As the young ninja thought this through, Master Chen continued to hover around his son, and Lloyd finally took notice that he was talking.

“-Your lack of manners is surprising, son. No questions over how am I here? I raised you better than that” the ghost asked with a false soothing voice that reminded Lloyd of Pythor and made his stomach turn.

Chen turned his head slightly towards his father, defiance clear in his eyes despite the pain that Kłopot was putting him through.

“You didn’t raise me at all” he spat with gritted teeth.

“Oh” Master Chen said, bowing his head slightly and turning around as he ran a hand through his beard-

-And then he turned around with unnatural speed and brutally smacked Chen in the face at the same time Kłopot let go of his hair and watched as the brunete’s head fell to the side with a cruel smile.

Lloyd barred his hands into fists while Chen’s breathing became raged and let out pain filled gasps.

 _"Come on, Garmadon, think!”_ “

You’ll heal” the cult leader said dismissively while the thug forced Chen’s head up again while he held on to a metal band connected with more wires. It reminded Lloyd of those weird torture things that crazy psychopaths usually put on their victims in the bad horror movies his dad had loved to watch.

Meanwhile, Master Chen had taken to circling around his son like a predator staking its prey.

“You know what? I’ll tell you how I’m here anyway” the so-called master decided as Chen struggled under Kłopot’s grip, who was trying to put the band over his head, “You see, when my old pupil Garmadon made the ridiculous decision to sacrifice himself in order to send me to the Cursed Realm, I died” he started off as Kłopot successfully put the metal band over Chen’s head as Lloyd took notice that the wires connected with a silent generator that had the Realm Crystal on top. He was faintly reminded of the machine Pythor and The Overlord had shoved him onto in order to steel his Golden Power.

“And then, a month later, his stupid son, the Green Ninja-” Lloyd held his breath and he could have sworn Chen did too- “And his team destroyed the Cursed Realm, so I died twice” Master Chen’s face was lit up, as if he was telling on a funny story, “And then! About a year ago, a freaky eclipse on the Day of The Departed brought me back, alongside a few others”

               “It was supposed to be just while the eclipse lasted unless we killed those who had wronged us. So I decided to go against the Red Ninja, who betrayed me and turned your sister against me, and his own sister, who was the one responsible for killing me for the second time”

That earned a grim chuckle from him.

“It didn’t work” Master Chen said with dark smile, “But the strangest thing happened, I could feel myself floating back to the Departed Realm, but I remained here”

“Great sob story, father, but what do you _want_ with me?” Chen asked with a low voice, struggling with his restraints, “Last I time I noticed, you never considered nor treated me like your son”

Kłopot snorted, but didn’t say anything, opting to walk towards the generator and push some of the buttons on it until his right hand came to rest on a lever.

“Oh, but now I do, because thanks to me, you finally have the body to be my proper child” Master Chen revealed as he floated closer while Chen lost the remaining color on his face, “I realized two things that night, I should take this as a second chance to reinstate myself into my crime life… and I definitely came after the wrong people” he smiled wickedly raising a hand towards Kłopot, who grinned and made a motion to push the lever down.

But he never had the chance, as Lloyd decided that enough was enough. Quickly, he stood up and pointed and shot a small beam towards Kłopot, who yelled a bunch of profanities when the energy made contact with his hand.

“And I can’t help but agree” he called as the three other men turned towards him in shock.

“YOU?!” Master Chen yelled with confusion and outrage. But Lloyd barely paid him any attention, his eyes were trained on Chen’s, who was looking at him with a relieved expression.

“Lloyd” he whispered his name with a small awe that managed to make his heart skip a few beats-

-which quickly turned into another wave of fear when Kłopot, despite having an injured hand, pressed a knife on the brunet’s neck.

“Move and bid this freak goodbye” the thug hissed while Chen’s eyes widened up as he held himself still. Lloyd griped the stair handle, but obliged.

In the distance, explosions and screaming served as a background noise, followed closely by thunder. But no one paid attention to it.

Master Chen let out a hum, looking back and forth between his son and the Green Ninja.

“Hmm, he actually came for you, Junior” he mused, stroking his beard. Kłopot rolled his eyes while also laughing.

“Well of course he came, sir, the Green Ninja comes to save the weak and the impure” the thug explained in an obnoxious tone before sneering down at Chen, “Isn’t that right, little bitch?”

“You fool, you’re missing the point” snarled the cult leader as he turned to look at Lloyd with a sly smile before turning back to Chen, “A young man coming to your rescue, against the odds of injury and death? Either he is extremely stupid or he cares too much!” he laughed while he floated next to his child.

“You know, _son_ , that’s the main weakness of the Garmadon men, the people they love!” Master Chen had a sickening grin on his face as he spoke.

Lloyd felt his breathing stop and he was sure his face had become white as a sheet. Chen simply forced his eyes closed, looking resigned while his captors started to snicker, as if the whole situation was just one heck of a joke.

“And Lloyd Garmadon must _really care_ about you” Master Chen making a big emphasis of his words made the Green Ninja eyes harden. He wanted the crazy man to shut up, mostly for Chen’s sake but also for his own.

The ghost had read the room and was now playing with them, taking advantage and exploiting Chen and Lloyd’s emotions. Abusing it.

“Come, son of Garmadon, grandson of The First Spinjitzu Master, Green Ninja, I would like to _formally_ meet you” Master Chen continued on, making a small yet obviously mocking bow, “Oh, and do leave the swords” he said as the knife in Chen’s throat was pressed harder.

It was a threat disguised as an invitation.

“I believe we had the pleasantries” Lloyd hissed, yet he slowly let go of the stair handle, took out the katanas and made his way down the wooden stairs, not breaking contact with the captors. As he got into even ground, Chen opened his eyes, fear clear in them as he looked back at Lloyd.

 _“_ _It’ll be okay”_ he wanted to assure him, _“I’ll get you out, I promise”_

Chen visibly relax a bit.

 _“_ _I trust you”_ he mouthed slightly.

The small interaction was completely overlooked by Master Chen and Kłopot, who simply stared back at the Green Ninja as he stopped ten feet away from them.

“Why do I have the feeling ‘Let him go’ will be ignored?” Lloyd decided to start with as he put his hands behind his back. His fingers made contact with the spare metal band.

“Because it will” Master Chen laughed with an eye-roll, “Junior will finally serve of something for me, you see”

At this statement, Chen shot his father a glare while a new resignation settled in this facial features.

Lloyd narrowed his eyes. He scanned the wires around the room, the metal band in Chen’s head and looked back at the generator that held the Realm Crystal. And then he remembered his thought about stolen power.

“You want his body” Lloyd realized with barely concealed horror as he turned back to face Master Chen, “You want to permanently possess his body”

Chen seemed to choke at this revelation, while his captors, for the second time, looked taken aback with surprise.

“Well, aren’t you smart” Master Chen growled, “But, I’ll confess, yes, I need his body”

“Why?!” Chen shrieked from his spot, but if he had more words to say they were cut by the painful gasp he let out when the knife made hard contact on his throat and drew a few drops of blood.

Lloyd glared as Master Chen watched with fascination the red fluid went down. By the time the droplets made contact with his shirt, the cut had already healed and the ghost looked sickly satisfied.

“The gene” Lloyd murmured, giving the restraints one final glance, before looking back at the cult leader, “Sounds like a nasty procedure” he said as he walked closer to Chen. Kłopot pressed the knife harder, and Lloyd held his hands up to make him know he knew the threat.

Observing the wires connected to the metal band, he mentally reached out, feeling the energy on the cords, the bolts of electricity flowing on them waiting to be put on action. Lloyd gave them a silent order to stay still.

“I know a few things in regards of engineering, and this looks like it ends in death” the Green Ninja pointed out. Master Chen barked a laugh.

“A process like this would kill anyone” he admitted, lifting Chen’s chin up, “But with the healing gene… well, it’s in the words, isn’t it?” he gave his son a wicked grin.

“You don’t win anything with this” Lloyd said, “All of your followers ended up in the Cursed Realm; Skylor, the Elemental Masters and my team dismantled what was left of your crime syndicate. You won’t get anything if you do this”

“I get rid of this pest and a new body” the ghost drily replied in a bored tone.

“He’s your son” Lloyd pressed, a new wave of disgust for the cult leader adding itself to the list of why this ghost was garbage, “He’s your blood, and you only see him as an item for power, a getaway to a life you don’t deserve to have” he continued on as he circled Chen, pausing briefly as their fingers brushed. The captors choose to overlook this, their eyes trained on the Green Ninja’s own.

“And in regards to this whole plan?” Lloyd gestured to the Realm Crystal and the machinery, “It won’t work”

Now it was Master Chen who narrowed his eyes.

“Don’t bluff” he snarled, the temperature in the room dropping slightly. Lloyd took out his mask in the hopes that the ghost could see how serious he was being.

“I’m not” he stated calmly while the electricity on the generator gave a soft hum, “The Realm Crystal is to create portals to Ninjago’s sister realms, not to gain possession of somebody else body permanently” he smirked, “It’s in the words, after all”

Master Chen looked vivid. Kłopot, for the first time, nervously went back and forth between the Green Ninja and his employer and lowered the knife.

“Well,” Chen broke the silence, “This has to be the dumbest master plan you’ve ever come up with, father”

And that’s when hell truly broke loose.

“Why you little shit!” Master Chen lounged towards his son with murder on his eyes and Lloyd shot the ghost and Kłopot square in the chest with energy beams, sending one of them flying towards the wall while the other simply phased through it with a scream.

Quickly, Lloyd leaped in front of Chen and took out the small dagger from his gi, and started to force the lock of the chains that held the brunet.

“You actually came” Chen said with a soft voice that held some disbelief. Lloyd stared at him, incredulous.

“You _actually_ thought I wouldn’t?” he asked with equal disbelief as the lock made a small click and it fell on the floor, followed closely by the chains. Chen took off the band on his head and hoped off the chair, but stumbled with the metal and fell on Lloyd, who clumsily stumbled back a bit before regaining his balance.

Neither let go. Instead, they held onto each other, the stress and fear over the whole situation crashing fully onto them.

“Maybe I was afraid you were dead” Chen finally whispered, clutching Lloyd’s gi and looking at the blond with raw emotion. Lloyd weakly smiled at him.

“Well, maybe I was afraid you were dead, too” he replied softly. The brunet huffed slightly, yet gave a small grin.“Come on” Lloyd said, pulling apart and taking Chen by the hand, “Let’s get-”

-And they got flung across the room by a pair of strong hands, crashing heavily against the generator, both of them gasping painfully with the impact. The Realm Crystal came off among the hit, and Lloyd quickly pocket it as he got up, trying his best to ignore the dizziness, while Chen stayed on the ground, body shaking.

“You little shits” Master Chen growled as he started to advance towards them, a pale looking Kłopot behind him, “The only one coming out of this house will be me!” he proclaimed as smoke started to come out from the machine, quickly flooding the room and causing the living occupants in the room to start coughing.

“And if it won’t work the painful way” the ghost continued on, eyes flashing, “We’ll do it the spooky way”

He flew towards Chen…. And promptly got himself shocked by an unseen force and thrown to the other side of the room.

Chen stared down at himself, shocked, before turning back at Lloyd.

“I’m pretty sure I’m not immune to ghost possession” he admitted.

“No one is supposed to” Lloyd informed before smirking as he raised his wrist, showing the bracelet and pointing at Chen’s left hand, who followed his gaze. His eyes comically widened when he noticed the identical metal armlet resting on his wrist.

“Anti-ghost technology?! That’s cheating!” Master Chen yelled with outrage. He then started at Kłopot, a terrifying smile forming on his lips.

“Oh, no” Kłopot said, making a move of running away. But his employer got to him, phasing onto his body in a terrifying green glow that woke up unpleasant memories on Lloyd.

“Oh yes” Master Chen exhaled as he took over the thug’s body, “Not what I planned, but it will do” he said as he turned around to face his opponents.

Lloyd ran to him, green energy at the ready on his fists and firing. The new duo of Master Chen-Kłopot dodged before engaging on a physical fight.

“You won’t save him” the possessed man taunted as he landed a hit on the Green Ninja, “He will perish today, I’ll make sure of it”

“Over my own dead body” Lloyd hissed as he kicked him on the knees. The sound of a broken bone filled the air, but the body simply laughed.

“Oh, a lover’s last words!” Master Chen-Kłopot was still giggling from his position before making the knife Lloyd had brought appear and swinging it to the ninja’s throat, who, taken by surprise, barely managed to dodge and ended up getting the blade implanted on his upper muscle arm.

The impact of the stab made him fall to the floor, amongst the broken wood. A knee to his stomach prevented him from getting up at the same time a heavy vengenstone chain was wrapped onto his neck.

“Bye-bye, Lloyd” Master Chen whispered with malice as the Green Ninja struggled for air, “Maybe you’ll wake up to Junior’s dead body next to you-”

“NO!”

Air slowly made it back on Lloyd’s lungs as the possessed thug was hit by a kick delivered by Chen, who was now the one standing in front of the blond protectively.

“You won’t hurt him” the brunet growled, body shaking but his voice firm.

“Die, then” Master Chen-Kłopot simply said, taking out the knife the thug had used to threaten before lounging at Chen, who dodged the sharp tool from stabbing him by mere inches. He managed to avoid him for more attempts, kicking and jumping and rolling at every move…

Until his father got tired of it and separated himself briefly from Kłopot, and managed to get a hit on his left shoulder before pinning a screaming Chen against the wall.

“CHEN!” Lloyd cried out. In desperation, he raised his hand, giving the electricity that had been waiting for his orders a command:

_Protect._

Bolts of lightning gave life to the wires, raising them from the ground and slithering towards the Master Chen-Kłopot duo, giving them a small shock that separated them from Chen.

As the murderous team backed away from the lighting serpents and into the source of the gas, Lloyd got up with difficulty, coughing as the smoke in the room got more into his lungs. Tapping onto his adrenaline fuel as he ran towards Chen’s side, who had slipped and was now sitting on the floor, breathing heavily and clearly struggling with the smoke as well.

“Huh, we’re matching” the brunet pointed out, bleary eyed while gazing to their respective wounds. Lloyd resisted the sudden urge to laugh about it, giving him a look instead, before centering his attention to the stab wound, biting his lip as blood trickled down despite the knife still being in place.

“If I take it out, how long-?”

“-Will it take to heal?” Chen finished among coughs. Lloyd nodded grimly among his own rapid breathing, looking down to his own wound and immediately regretting it. Nya’s knife had been slid down his upper arm, creating a deep gash that was flowing freely on his arm.

“I- I wouldn’t know” Chen continued on, his right hand hovering around the handle, “The down- downside to the healing gene is that the bigger wounds heals first, but it’s hard to say when they- they are more” he said.

“And we’re both on- on the risk of a lung collapse” Lloyd whispered, faintly remembering the symptoms of smoke inhalation. Bleeding didn’t make things easier.

Behind them, Master Chen- Kłopot were cursing and screaming behind the smoke and wires. And then, a loud and pitched scream was heard while the tale-tale sound belonging to the crackle of a newly lit fire followed among the chaos.

For a moment, both boys could have sworn that they saw Master Chen, screaming and kicking as he seemingly floated towards the ceiling with no control, his purple amethyst eyes making contact with Lloyd and Chen’s, giving them a hateful glare before disappearing.

Hadn’t the other ninja, sans Cole, mentioned that was happened on the last Day of the Departed?

“He’s gone” Lloyd whispered in realization, relief and shock on his voice as the sound of advancing fire started gaining ground.

“Lloyd…” Chen mumbled, clearly having heard the sound, looking pale, “We need…”

“I know” the blond replied as he ripped of his mask from his gi and putting on Chen’s head, “You go ahead and I’ll manage to take out Kłopot- he doesn’t deserve to die here”

But his friend shook his head, stubbornness clear in his hazel eyes despite the pain and the continued coughs.

“Not without you” he said, grabbing onto the blond’s hand, fingers getting intertwined instantly.

“Chen-” Lloyd started to protest, but another coughing fit made his words die on his mouth. His arm was also killing him.

And had the room been spinning before?

“If you stay here like this and I go- go out, you’ll die” the brunet’s voice sounded sacred and his eyes were shinning, “I don’t want that, Lloyd”

“And I don’t want to lose you again” Lloyd revealed, voice pleading as he brought his uninjured hand to cup Chen’s cheek.

“Then we do it together, you play savior, I play doctor” his companion said, leaning into the touch while giving the blond a little amused look, “We’re quite the pair, aren’t we?”

This time Lloyd did laugh, ignoring the pain that it caused on his chest. Here they were, suffocating and with stab wounds, being stubborn about survival just to save a man that tried to kill them and was probably already dead.

“Yes, yes we are” he admitted as they both got up, leaning into each other on their good sides, doing their best to preserve their air.

But before they could even advance, Lloyd caught another sent in the room that sent blaring alarms in his pounding head.

“Doesn’t it smell like rotten eggs to you?” Chen asked, giving the blond a worried look.

Lloyd barely had time to himself in front of Chen and create a small shied before the whole house exploded in a raging inferno.

* * *

The landing sucked.

The impact of the explosion sent them flying, and once the hit the ground, the shield disappeared, leading to the rolling, which in turn created a new list of injuries added to their bodies with every rock and branch that met them on the way before finally coming to a stop in the mud.

Both boys were on their side, difficult breaths being the only sound coming out of their bodies. The knife that had been impaled on Chen’s shoulder had disappeared at one point alongside Lloyd’s mask, while Lloyd himself could feel that his shoulder pads and a least one sleeve had gotten tore off.

His head was pounding, he could feel blood trickling down his head and lips alongside rain. Chen himself had cuts on his face that were starting to slowly fade away. His eyes were firmly closed, gasping slightly in pain every time he tried to take a deep breath.

“C-Chen?”

FSM, even talking hurt. But seeing the hazel eyes open even slightly made it worth it.

“You shouldn’t… be talking” Chen mumbled, “ ‘s bad for your lungs… right now”

Lloyd smiled slightly. The brunet rolled his eyes with fondness.

“You’re not going to listen… are you?” he guessed, looking at the still smiling Lloyd with some exasperation.

“It’s over” the blond whispered, bringing up their still miraculously intertwined hands, “You’re… safe….We’ll be fine”

Chen let out a small laugh, but his face immediately contorted in pain, a few stray tears falling down.

“Yeah” he breathed before adding, “We’re…going to… pass out, aren’t… we?”

“Again” Lloyd weakly pointed out. But it was true, his eyelids were getting heavy and he was seeing dark spots. Chen himself looked drowsy.

Lloyd then suddenly remembered something.

“Before this… happened….I wanted to tell you…. Something” he gasped out, trying to stay awake longer, “It was… important…”

“After…” Chen softly said, his eyelids slowly closing, “Tell me… after… just stay… here… for me…”

The grip on Lloyd’s hand fell limp.

“Wasn’t…planning… to…leave you” he mumbled before closing his own eyes.

Someone was calling his name when he finally slipped into unconsciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uff… that was long.
> 
> Sorry for the two month absence, but college is killing me. This chapter was getting written between snips of free time. 
> 
> But anyway, I delivered! 
> 
> I would appreciate reviews in here, since I kinda suck at action scenes, so I would like to know what you guys thought. Also, we’re 2 chapters away from the end!


	12. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"Say you were made to be mine?_  
>  _Nothing can keep us apart_  
>  _'Cause you are the one I was meant to find"_  
>  Zac Efron & Zendaya (Rewrite the Stars)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't usually do an Authors Note this long at the beginning of a chapter, but I want to avoid confusing you guys in this one. So, we all know that the exact timeline of Ninjago is a bit of a mess, and everyone can come up with the years and months between seasons, right? I'm sharing my take on the timeline (I have used the Gregorian calendar to help myself) to give you guys some clarity on this fic:
> 
> Lets say that the 4 pilot episodes and S1 happened about the middleish of 2012, and S2 occurred in the following year (2013). We don't know exactly how much time passed between S2 and S3, but I say that it was a year, since New Ninjago wasn't built in a day, and Wu and Garmadon's academies sure weren't either. So S3 kicks off around September of 2014. After that, the team breaks apart, and again, we don't know how much time has passed in between seasons, but lets say about six months. So now its 2015, and we got S4 and a month later we got S5.
> 
> S6…. Only Jay and Nya remember what happened, but either way Nya is shown to have more control over her powers, so lets say another year has passed, its now 2016. Day of The Departed and the mini-episodes of Wu's Teashop also happen this year.
> 
> And finally, as I mentioned way past on chapter 1, S7 happened at the beginning of the year 2017, while S8 and S9 happen in 2018, to make sense of Tommy's tweet in which he confirms that the Ninja are old teenagers/young adults, which is around 19/20 years old.
> 
> Anyway, here's the chapter!

At first, Lloyd felt like he was struggling to float in a vast, angry ocean. His body was being racked back and forth, his lungs seemed to have a weigh that prevented him from properly taking a breath before another wave crashed over him and made his ears ring and his head throb painfully.

And then? He felt that he was just underwater. Everything was pitch black, he didn't know which way was up and down, he wasn't even sure if he could swim, his arms and legs weren't working, one of his arms was simply numb, he couldn't breathe-

_Breathe._

-A simple command voiced by someone he couldn't see in the darkness-

_Please, Lloyd, breathe._

-No, it wasn't a command… the voice was pleading with him.

But why?

Wouldn't he drown if he dared to inhale?

_I asked you to stay!_

The voice sounded so distressed, so… painfully familiar.

_Please, Lloyd!_

Comfort while hanging out… Warmth when talking about everything and nothing…. Laughter while remembering and recalling… Teasing while being too close…

He knew that voice.

_Please, Lloyd, stay with me..._

Dark chocolate hair, soft upon touch.

Hazelnut eyes that held a promise of wonder.

_Chen._

And Lloyd allowed himself to draw a deep breath.

* * *

The first thing that he saw upon opening his eyes was Kai's Concerned Face™ hovering over him.

"You-" his friend greeted him with a hard poke on his chest, "-Need to stop having near-death experiences. Every _. Single. **Year**_ " he finished off by giving more aggressive pokes.

Lloyd simply gave his surrogate older brother a tired grin.

"Sorry?" he mumbled, wincing at how sore his throat felt, immediately bringing up his ungloved hand to try and rub it off.

Hang on.

The blond withdrew his hand, examining the dried blood and dirt alongside his now thorn gi. He briefly remembered the horrible landing, losing the shoulder pads, the full right-sleeve and his mask, which he gave to-

"Where's Chen?!" Lloyd hurriedly asked as he quickly sat up, an action he soon came to regret when the room started spinning.

"Whoa there!" Kai was fast on grounding him, holding the young man by the shoulders, "It's okay, he's safe, Lloyd" he soothed, lightly pushing Lloyd back to whatever he had been resting on, "Skylor is with him" he added while passing the blond a small cup of water.

Lloyd felt his body nearly collapse with relief with that information as he gladly took the beverage and his room slowly started to stop looking in double.

His eyes suddenly widened as Kai chuckled beside him.

"Before you freak-out again, yeah, we kinda had to make an emergency landing in the Temple of Airjitzu" the Red Ninja explained.

"Emergency landing?" Lloyd weakly questioned as he took a look around his room. A fine layer of dust had collected around the floor and boxes he hadn't unpacked on their brief stay on the temple at the beginning of the year.

Kai gave him a wary look.

"You stopped breathing, Lloyd" he reveled, "Chen Jr had barely woken up from his own injuries, because apparently he can heal himself? I'm still waiting for my official freak-out attack on that and- you don't look surprised over the fact that guy you have a crush on has healing powers" Kai was basically low-key shrieking by now.

"Kai!" Lloyd gave the spiky-haired brunet a slap on the shoulder, "Calm down! Yes, I knew, but I only found out today!" or at least he thought it had been today, the sky was dark outside.

His friend took a deep breath.

"Yeah, okay, I can live with that" he murmured as he pinched the bridge of his nose, "You just…. well, the two of you gave us a scare, I don't think I've ever heard Skylor swear so much. Or Ronin, on that note" Kai sighed.

"He and I had just taken out the thugs that, as you guessed, were in the palace, and then, Boom! A big explosion sounded off. We both found Skylor near the entrance, having also fought some of them and the three of us then ran to where the big smoke and fire was coming from, and that's when they both started to swear up and beyond before calling out you and Chen's names. We found you both a few feet away, unconscious, bleeding, and barely even breathing  _and_  holding hands" he gave Lloyd a knowing look along a small smirk, while the blond simply looked down as his cheeks heated up.

"What happened next?" Lloyd inquired with a small frown, hating that he was basically asking to relieve a bad memory.

"Well… the first thing that came to my mind was 'hospital', obviously" Kai continued on, "But then… it's a little fuzzy because of the stress, but the short version is that Skylor started freaking out before she revealed Chen Jr's little power and then we were on our dragons and then Chen Jr started waking up and then… we both noticed that you weren't breathing" he looked grim as he talked, "I guess we got really lucky that we were flying past the temple, because we landed without discussion, there was another swear round when we noticed that you were also losing way too much blood and that your pulse was going deadly low; before Chen Jr basically threw himself at your side and started giving you chest compressions and then-" he took a deep breath.

"And then you're coughing off  _black smoke_ , like, straight out of a horror movie, but you were also breathing again, and the wound in your arm" Kai pointed a finger at Lloyd's sleeveless limb, "Started  _closing_ " he was whisper-shouting by the end of the sentence while some sparks of fire lit up in the high spikes of his hair.

"You're freaking out again" Lloyd pointed out, while something inside him fluttered cause Chen had actually risked using a power he seemed to hate on him again as a familiar red-head walked through the door.

"Honey, your hair is on fire" Skylor deadpanned while Kai quickly taped his hands into his head. She chuckled at her boyfriend's antics before turning to Lloyd.

"You're awake" she said with some light surprise.

"Uh, yeah-" the blond started to say before Skylor suddenly tackled him into a hug.

"Skylor?" he asked, a bit taken aback.

"Thank you, Lloyd" she whispered, "Thank you for saving him" she added before pulling back. Lloyd shyly smiled at her, his eyes going to the door in the hopes of seeing a familiar brunet.

Skylor giggled as she followed his line of sight.

"Chen's outside" she revealed with a small grin before pursing her lips, frowning, "You should talk to him" she added softly, amethyst eyes showing concern, "He says he's fine… but he's not, really"

"Yeah, I know the feeling" Lloyd muttered, shoving the now empty cup into the nightstand and getting up again, albeit slowly this time when another wave of dizziness hit him.

"Where are you going?" Kai asked, crossing his arms. Lloyd shot him a 'seriously?' look.

"Outside…?" he replied, instantly getting on guard when his friend gave him a disapproving gaze.

"You're still weak from blood loss" Kai pointed out as Lloyd got up and tumbled towards the wall, deciding to lean against it for support.

"And-" Lloyd stopped himself upon noticing his friend still remained on his spot on the bed with Skylor, who was looking at them back and forth with amusement in her eyes, "-You're not stopping me" he noticed with slight surprise.

Kai still bore the disapproving look, but the corners of his mouth keep twitching, fighting to avoid a smile.

"Well, if a twisted ankle didn't stop you from facing the Overlord …" the spiky-haired teen trailed off with a shrug, but the message was clear, and Lloyd gave him a grateful smile.

"Thank you, Kai" he whispered, starting to walk out of the room before suddenly stopping, remembering the promise he had made Chen before passing out.

"Actually, can you do me a small favor?" the blond asked, turning to face his brother, while his eyes searched for the box that contained pictures.

Five minutes, a small explanation for Kai, some help from Skylor and Ronin, and a hundred spilled photos later, Lloyd exited the room with some caution and still leaning on the walls to keep his balance, wearing a spare hoodie that had been forgotten on a box and a photograph gently folded in one of the pockets as he slowly made his way outside the temple.

A gentle yet cold summer breeze was the first thing that greeted him when he opened the doors, the wind picking the fallen tree leaves around his feet as he went down the steps. He stopped for a moment to let his eyes get accustomed to the lack of light, still trying to check his surroundings anyway for a mop of dark brown hair and letting out a little gasp when he finally found it.

Chen was sitting on the ground near the edge of the tiny island, wrapped with a small blanket that was probably provided by Skylor and Kai. He had his back to Lloyd, and he seemed to be watching the dark sky with stars that lazily shone down while the moon provided the surrounding clouds a pearly glow.

He looked ethereal like this and Lloyd nearly lost his bravery just by staring, but quickly shook his head (and got hit with another wave of dizziness), and kept on walking towards him.

(His body suffering the after effects of blood loss wasn't going to stop him, thank you very much)

Only when the blond was closer he realized that there was something wrong. Chen was sniffing quietly, his body giving away short trembles that Lloyd knew didn't have anything to do with the cold.

"Chen?" he gently whispered. The brunet stiffened, slowly turning around to face him. Lloyd felt his heart sank when the moon illuminated the puffy eyes and tear tracks on the other boy's face.

"Lloyd?" he mumbled with a small voice, sounding unbelieving.

"Hey" the blond replied, offering him a smile. Chen simply stared, and before Lloyd knew it, the brunet had gotten up and tackled him into a bone-crushing hug that nearly threw them into the ground. Ignoring another pang of dizziness, Lloyd quickly returned the hug.

"You're awake" Chen's voice was slightly muffled as his head was almost buried into the blond's shoulder.

"And you're safe" Lloyd murmured, his hands tugging the miraculously still intact baby blue jacket with a bit too much force to ensure that yes, Chen was here.

Lloyd couldn't help it, unshed tears of fear and relief made it out of his eyes as he pulled Chen closer to him, his knees buckling down as they both collapsed in the floor, too afraid to let go of each other while Chen himself released a new wave of tears and his arms positioned themselves around the blond's neck as the events that transpired in the day finally came crashing down on both boys.

It had been close.

Too close.

"I thought I lost you" Chen whispered after a while, lifting his head in order to meet Lloyd's eyes, "I thought you were going to leave…"

"Well, I promised you I was going to stay, didn't I?" he replied as he offered the other boy a soft grin, "I wouldn't dare on leaving you. Not on purpose. Not to hurt you"

"Also… thank you for saving me" he added, immediately felling himself blush a bit now that his brain was processing what he just said as Chen's hazel eyes softened, shaking his head slightly.

"Dork" he said with a fond laugh, letting go of the blond's neck in order to sit next to him and pulling the forgotten blanket into their laps, "Guess it was about time I returned the favor, don't you think?" the brunet additionally said with a little wink before setting his sight into the horizon, a faint pink blush on his cheeks.

"I'm also proud of you" Lloyd revealed. Chen looked at him with surprise.

"For what?" he asked with some confusion.

"For standing up against Master Chen" the blond clarified, giving Chen's hand a soft squeeze while the other boy flushed, "That took a lot of courage from you"

"Yeah, well" Chen replied, "He was going to kill you-"

"No" Lloyd quickly interrupted, barely suppressing a shiver as he remembered, "He wanted me to live… so I would wake up next to your dead body, for me to see that I failed" he revealed, looking grimly at the shocked brunet before adding, "And I'm not just proud of you for avoiding the attacks; I'm proud of you because, even after all this time, you didn't let him break you"

Chen's entire face became entirely red, looking away.

"You don't know that" he mumbled, letting go Lloyd's hand and opting to pull his legs up, wrapping his arms around the knees.

"What do you mean?" Lloyd asked with concern, turning to face the brunet and forcing his eyes to momentarily close in order to fight the vertigo.

"You like me" Chen said, facing forward. Yet his eyes lingered towards the blond, "And not just as a friend"

Lloyd felt himself freeze as Master Chen's earlier mocking briefly passed through his brain.

_"-that's the main weakness of the Garmadon men, the people they love!"_

_"And Lloyd Garmadon must **really care**  about you"_

Damn it.

He wanted to cry. This isn't how he wanted to have this conversation.

"I…" he lowered his head, his hair falling on his face as he bit his trembling lip before sighing, "Yes" he admitted, looking at Chen in the eye, "I didn't want you to find out like that" he continued on, feeling rather small.

"I know" his friend whispered, "And even if I liked you back-" Chen turned his head the other way, making it impossible for the blond to properly read his face, yet he still managed to catch sight of glistering eyes, breaking his heart even more, "It wouldn't be right" he choked out, "We're not the same age, Lloyd. Not really"

Oh.

_Oh._

Lloyd's fingers curled around the picture in his pocket as he extended a hand to the brunet.

"Chen-" he said cautiously. But the other boy wasn't over.

"And it's all because of that stupid tea-"

"Ch _en_ -"

"-that basically makes me a- a child in a grown body-"

You know those moments in TV or movies, when the music's playing and suddenly the disc makes a jarring noise that ruins the melody?

For the young ninja, the words of the other boy had that effect.

"What?" Lloyd asked with his voice taking a higher note than normal. Chen cautiously turned to look back at him, eyes and brows narrowed in confusion.

"Well… isn't that what it does?" he tentatively said, "Leaves a child in an adult body?"

"No… that's-" the blond swallowed, the sudden urge to laugh and strangle Master Chen and thank Sensei Wu coming to him, "-That's not how the Tomorrow's Tea works" he revealed with a gentle tone.

Now it was Chen who seemed to be going through the same jarring noise process.

"Wh _at_?" yep, his voice was also an octave higher, "But-but I thought…" he was scrambling for an explanation, and it was then when it dawned to Lloyd that Chen really didn't know what exactly had happened to him. His brain, not knowing how to deal with the trauma of drinking the tea and not knowing anything in regards to it, came up with that.

"Hey, hey" the blond gently grabbed him by the shoulders, "Breathe" he instructed while his right hand blindly searched and grabbed a stick from the ground. Once Chen seemed to calm down a bit, Lloyd briefly tapped into the last bit of energy of his powers that was left in order to give the point of the wooden branch and some tree leaves a tiny amount of light, before giving the brunet a smile.

"Think about it this way" Lloyd started off as he drew a line in the dirt, small green and golden sparks coming along with it, "You're born thirteen years ago-" he pointed at the beginning with a marked X, "-and you're living your early years" the stick came to rest near the middle before poking it and leaving an acid green dot; Chen following all of this with a tiny amount of fascination and curiosity.

"Now let's say that here it's your eleventh year. The tea is forced on you. You age to be Skylor's age, which should be around sixteen or seventeen years old" Lloyd continued to explain as he drew a semicircular line that connected near the end of the line, looking up to stare directly at Chen, "Your body and mind aged too. You have suddenly gotten a new level of maturity; the Tomorrow's Tea actually works as a time-jump for the mind and body"

The brunet stayed silent, choosing to look down to the now dim green and golden lines in the dirt, tracing it softly with his fingers before raising his head again, his eyes vulnerable and yet with a thankful spark.

"So… it's like an accelerated growth spurt… but with tiny time travel" Chen summarized slowly, like he was tasting the words. Lloyd hummed.

"A highly dangerous one, but yeah, you time-travel in your own body" he gave a small grin while shrugging apologetically, "It's weird"

Chen nodded in agreement, looking thoughtful as he let his legs drop and went back to staring down, this time to play with his fingers. After a few beats of silence, he sighed.

"I've spent these last years thinking the wrong thing and hating myself for no reason" he murmured as he ran a hand through his hair, "I hated Master Chen for what he did to me, but I also thought… that I wasn't allowed to a happy, real relationship"

Lloyd couldn't help but flinch as Chen's voice wavered.

"You didn't know" he soothed, again placing his hand on top of Chen's, giving it a squeeze, "You went through an unwanted transformation and your brain came up with the most sensible theory at the moment"

The brunet gave him a peaceful smile, returning the action. But then he frowned.

"Hang on" Chen gave him a suspicious look, "How do you know so much about this tea?" he asked with a perplex tone.

Lloyd let out a little sigh, slowly taking out the picture that had been resting on his pocket. He gave the other teen a tentative look.

"Remember the something? That I wanted to tell you?" he inquired softly, his heart hammering anxiously on his chest as Chen slowly nodded with some slight confusion.

The blond took a deep breath, closing his eyes. He then handled over the folded photo to the brunet, who grabbed it with a worried frown. Lloyd simply gave him a shaky smile in return.

"Sorry, it's just… I've never told anyone this, and…. Seeing is believing" he whispered as Chen's thump trailed over a small sentence with big and shaky letters that a child had written on one of the sides.

 _'My new family'_  it read alongside smaller letters detailing the date it had been taken.

Giving Lloyd one last look, Chen unfolded the picture.

For a moment, he didn't say anything, his eyes scanning the four year old photograph with small amusement as he went through the seven happy faces that were smiling at the camera.

But then he stopped on a particular face again and let out a gasp, raising his head to stare with wide-eye shock at Lloyd and then back again at the picture, his fingers touching the youngest face of the group, the one with a mop of blond hair, red eyes and a toothy grin.

"It's…" Chen breathed, looking at Lloyd again, "…You"

The blond slowly nodded, not trusting his voice while the other teen joined the new puzzle pieces.

"You… you're like me" the brunet continued on, breathing out a little laugh while his other hand went once again through his hair, "Well, this explains it" he mumbled, staring at Lloyd, but his small smile soon got whipped out as he checked one again the writing in the back of the picture.

"How old were you?" Chen softly asked. The other boy glanced away, the clouds suddenly looking quite interesting.

"I-" he swallowed, "My ninth birthday was only four months away" he replied, his tone distant.

"At the café…" the brunet seemed to hesitate for a moment, before continuing, "When you said that the final battle with your dad was earlier than expected because of unfortunate circumstances… and that your education was on homeschool… it was because of this" he realized.

"Yes" Lloyd admitted, playing with the hoodie sleeves out of nervousness as he added, "But the circumstances of how I ended up taking the Tomorrow's Tea are not the same as yours"

Chen tilted his head, frowning.

"What do you mean?"

Lloyd let out another heavy sigh, briefly looking up as he tried to gather his thoughts.

"You were forced…" he started out slowly, "I- I kinda had a choice… but it's not like there were many possibilities anyway" he added with some bitterness as Chen shifted himself closer until they were stuck side by side.

"You don't have to continue" he soothed, voicing what Lloyd had said hours ago as the blond shook his head.

"You told me your story" he whispered, "It's only fair if I share mine"

Chen gave a tiny sigh of defeat, yet he was looking at Lloyd with a gleam in his eyes.

"You know you're a stubborn dork, right?" he fondly murmured. The blond offered him a grin before taking a deep breath and exhaling.

And so he begins his tale.

Lloyd explains first about the Golden Weapons, Lord Garmadon's creation and use of the Mega Weapon and his continued attempts on Kai, Cole, Jay, Nya and Sensei Wu's life just so they couldn't train him to become the Green Ninja.

When it finally comes to describing the day he stopped being a child; his voice starting to waver as he recalls saying that he wanted to grow-up and yet still be able to enjoy being a child, Chen puts his arms around him in silent support. It's a backing Lloyd finds necessary when he recalls the Grundle's attack, Sensei Wu and Nya arriving in the nick of time when he and the other ninja find themselves surrounded in a corner by the prehistoric creature, how the container holding the Tomorrow's Tea ended up landing on his lap and how the others had begged and tried to find a way for him to not break the container with him being present-

-And how he realized that he really didn't have a choice. For the first time in four years, Lloyd allowed himself to cry in regards of the events, Chen listening and holding him without judgment.

They stayed quiet after that, the only sound being the wind passing through them and rustling the trees, picking up some of the glowing stray leaves and making them swirl around for a bit.

"Man, we're seriously fucked up" Chen says, finally breaking the silence.

"Yeah" Lloyd mumbled, turning to face him, "But I think we turned out alright, despite all"

"You really think so?" the other teen asked, "Didn't you ever feel like your life was like a big hell show?

"Yes, I did" the blond admitted, as he started to smile, "But then I met you"

Chen slapped him in the leg as his ducked his face, and Lloyd felt quite satisfied when he saw how flustered he had gotten. He couldn't help it, the young man busted out laughing. The brunet glared.

"Stop saying things like that" he warned, "I'm the one that's supposed to make you blush with that stuff!"

"Says who?" Lloyd asked with a small smirk.

"Says the guy who happens to like you!" Chen replied before quickly covering his mouth, hazel eyes growing wide. Lloyd found himself gaping at him, the smirk slowly becoming a genuine smile.

"You like me back?" he whispered with a hopeful tone. The teen slowly nodded, covering his face with his hands.

"Why do I blurt out stuff like this to you?" Chen moaned.

"Because you like me?" Lloyd innocently replied.

"Llo _yyyyyyd_ " the brunet whined, dropping his hands and narrowing his eyes at the blond, "I didn't tease you about  _you_  liking  _me_ " he said as he pocked Lloyd on the chest.

"Well… looking back? We both kinda went emo when I admitted it" the ninja reminded, cringing as he added, "And also when I realized that I liked you. And when I say realize, I mean Kai dropped the bomb on me"

"It's that why you avoided me for three days?" Chen asked.

"Yeah" Lloyd admitted, dropping his head, "I was afraid that if I told you how I felt, you wouldn't want to see me again. And… I also feared that if I told you about the Tomorrow's Tea-"

"-I would consider you a freak" Chen finished softly before letting out a heavy sigh of his own.

"Yes…" the blond trailed off, smiling with exasperation, "What flirting does to people, huh?"

His companion huffed.

"Was that all that it took?" he curiously asked, tilting his head in the manner that Lloyd loved so much.

"No" he replied with a small smile, "It was also how you manage to spot small details in the world and make it a masterpiece, and how you always have a snarky comment at the tip of your tongue. How you read me so easily and never push me to reveal thing's I'm comfortable talking about. The way you look when you're relaxed, like everything is right with the world"

He was well aware that his face was completely flushed by the end of his babbler, but he couldn't care any less as he took in the joyful look in Chen's face.

"Well, don't you have a way with words, Garmadork" he mumbled, taking a small breath before continuing, "I'll be honest, I originally flirted with you because, well…" he looked at Lloyd with a shy stare that the blond's heart instantly fluttered at the sight, "You look adorable when you're flushed. And when you smile. And laugh. And when you're just… being you" he scratched the back of his head, not trying to hide his own blush this time, "But… it didn't really hit me until a few days ago" he quietly added.

Somehow, Lloyd already knew the answer for that one.

"When we nearly kissed?" he gently prompted, remembering how Chen had looked after Kai and Skylor had interrupted.

"Yeah" he let out another sigh, "I realized I liked seeing you like that, being the reason behind it and… and it hit me, it made me happy" he gave the blond a soft smile, but he quickly dropped it, "And I got scared, same reason with the tea"

"Yet you told me, and ended up revealing two secrets" Lloyd pointed out, "Why? You could have just told me about the Chiryō-shi gene" he asked, curious. Chen nodded.

"You're right, but I realized I didn't want any secrets between us" he paused, smiling back at Lloyd a bit sheepishly, "Well, except maybe for my crush"

"FSM, we're disasters, aren't we?" Lloyd said with a shaky laugh, which Chen shared, calming down a bit faster than the blond.

"So… what now?" the brunet asked softly, "We have feelings for each other, we can't really go back to just being friends"

"True" Lloyd agreed, biting his lip, "We could… try something? Like a date?" he shyly offered. Chen smiled.

"I would love that" he replied as he stood up from the floor and offered the blond a hand, who eagerly took it.

However, when the brunet pulled him up, a new wave of vertigo hit Lloyd like a truck, making him let out a gasp of pain as his knees buckled onto the ground. Chen managed to catch him by the waist, preventing him from taking another full hit on the dirt.

"Lloyd?!" he worriedly asked as he cradled the blond's head with one arm and tried to cheek for injuries with the other.

"'M fine" Lloyd mumbled, "Just got… really,  _really_ dizzy… this time" he offered a weak smiled at the other teen.

"Blood loss" Chen whispered, as if he just realizing something, "You've been at risk of fainting this whole time?!" he all but yelled as he used his free hand to make the young ninja properly look at him.

The blond gave him an unapologetic stare.

"Well honey, if you look up 'stubborn' in the dictionary, you'll find a picture of me" he replied while trying to sit a bit uptight without making Chen abandon his current position.

"No, that's what you find when you look up 'dork'" the brunet shook his head in exasperation, pausing for a moment, "Well, 'stubborn' is fine, but your name comes up the footnotes, not a picture" he said with a smirk, leaning in until his forehead was nearly touching Lloyd's, who simply gave an soft, yet indignant "Hey!"

Chen chuckled, and Lloyd simply rolled his eyes fondly, letting his stare rest on the brunet's hazel orbs with the other teen returning the gaze, a loving spark on them as they seemed to inspect the shade of the blond's eyes in the dim light.

"What color are my eyes?" Lloyd whispered, his eyes briefly flickering towards the brunet's lips.

"The most beautiful crimson out there" Chen breathed, leaning in until their noses were nearly touching and their hearts were hammering in their chests, "Like a light in the dark, just as the rest of you"

They were intimately close, their breaths quick and still staring at each other with adoration. Then Chen gave a glance to the blond's lips, and suddenly they were leaning; and Lloyd closed his eyes as their lips met in the middle.

The kiss was gentle and almost shy. Lloyd found himself melting into it, letting his hands rest onto Chen's neck and hair, while the brunet wrapped his arms around him, falling into the embrace as well.

It was short, but when they pulled back to get air, neither let go, instead letting their foreheads rest together, both of them with peaceful smiles on their flushed faces and eyes full of mirth.

"I thought first kisses weren't supposed to be perfect" Lloyd murmured as Chen laughed, his left hand caressing the blond's cheek.

"I guess there can always be an exception to the rule" his partner commented with a small smirk, Lloyd shook his head in amusement before pulling Chen onto another kiss, this time more passionate than the first.

And for the first time in years, they both silently thanked destiny.

For making their paths cross.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Holidays!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I'll admit that I took some liberties with the Tomorrow's Tea… cause no-one really knows what to make out of the grow sprout. And the kiss? I'm proud of how it turned out. I think it's the first time I've actually enjoyed writing a first kiss.


	13. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"Your hand in mine and we are running like two flickering lights_  
>  _Out past this moment, we are flying through the days and the nights"_  
>  Sam Tsui & Casey Breves (This Promise)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My god, I did it. I finished before 2018 ends.

**_A month and a half later_ **

 

"Psst, Lloyd" a voice gently started to talk him out of his dreams. Despite that, the teen barely stirred in bed, simply sluggishly shaking his head before burying it further onto the pillow.

"Llo _yd_ " the voice chastised with lingering amusement as someone started to slightly shake his shoulder.

"….Five more minutes" Lloyd mumbled, turning on the bed and engulfing himself deeper into the comforter. Whoever had been the one calling him huffed.

"Come on, Garmadork…" the now very familiar voice taunted with humor at the same time blond started to feel the blanket slipping from his body.

"Don't you dare, Chen" he muttered, lazily grabbing the comforter and pulling it over his head-

-Only to immediately peek out of his warm cocoon to stare at the brunet incredulously.

"Surpriiiise" Chen singsonged, the early lazy morning sun rays illuminating the Cheshire grin that was plastered on his face despite the lingering darkness in the room.

"How did you get in my room?" Lloyd groggily asked, running a hand through his face to try and shake the sleepiness way, "Not that I'm really complaining" he added with a smile as he gave Chen a little peak between his fingers.

"The power of love gave me the key to the  _Desitny's Bounty_ " Chen deadpanned before the corners of his lips curled at Lloyd's eye roll, "Kai let me in" he admitted as he sat next to the blond once the latter had risen to a sitting position, "Apparently, now that I'm your boyfriend, I get to serve as a distraction tool"

"You know" Lloyd started to say as let out a lazy yawn, "I still don't get used to that term" he confessed with a soft smile before the last sentence Chen spoke finally ran through his brain, "What do you mean you're a distraction tool?" he inquired, feeling more awake.

"Yeah, I agree, 'boyfriends' is a little overrated" Chen mused, purposely ignoring Lloyd's question, "We need to start making people use 'lovers' or 'partners'. Or 'beloved'! 'Significant other' is also much overlooked" he continued on, tapping on his chin as he looked over to Lloyd with a smirk on his face, who simply responded by hitting him with his pillow.

"Ch _en_ , what are you not telling m _e_?" the blond questioned as his boyfriend started laughing, which only ended in getting hit more by the pillow and unleashing more laughter, "What are you guys planning?" he asked, raising the cushion once again to issue as a warning.

Chen finally calmed down his laugh to giggles, raising his hands up in a surrendering manner.

"Sorry honey" he said, holding Lloyd's face while giving him an apologetic look, "I don't really know why there's so much secrecy about it, but I was asked to distract you and I'm planning on delivering"

And before Lloyd could even argue the logic behind that, Chen placed a quick kiss on the blond's lips. "Now, birthday boy-" his partner released another chuckle when Lloyd's eyes widened, "Don't tell me you forgot today is your birthday" he asked with slight exasperation.

"I kinda did" Lloyd admitted with a faint blush of embarrassment. The brunet shook his head in fondness before kissing the blond's temple.

"As I was saying" Chen continued on, giving him a mischievous look, "Birthday boy, get dressed. Today we're going to have some fun"

An hour later, after eating a quick breakfast and getting ushered (more like kicked) out of the  _Bounty_  by Kai (but not before wishing him a happy birthday alongside an affectionate hair ruffle), they were riding the train to the outsides of New Ninjago City. Lloyd had long given up on trying to figure out what the hell Kai, and to an extent, the other ninja, were planning on doing that required Chen to distract him away from the city.

He wasn't really complaining though. The train car wasn't full, and both of the young men were comfortably seated side by side and holding hands, sharing Chen's music while lazily watching the scenery from the windows. Since getting of the station, though, Chen had been tapping his leg non-stop and absentmindedly played with his fingers, so the blond was admittedly curious over what his boyfriend was planning.

Of course, his partner noticed that he was thinking about something too much.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Chen asked once the last note of The Fold's  _La da Da_  faded. Lloyd couldn't help the small smile that formed on his lips.

"Just wondering about the day" he admitted, turning slightly to face the brunet, "I can put behind whatever the ninja are planning, but you seem a bit too much excited over where you're taking me" he added with a small smirk as Chen blushed slightly.

"I can't help it!" he replied while giving Lloyd a grin and a slight shove on the shoulder, "But you'll love it" he said with an affectionate look.

"And whatever ' _it_ ' is, it's on the outside of the city" Lloyd mused, imitating a thinking pose just to annoy Chen, who has taken to leaning back on the seat and stare at him with his arms crossed, amusement clear in his eyes, "And you're treating me to something you know I'll love on my birth-" he cut himself when he noticed that the brunet now had a wide smirk plastered on his face, his gaze going to something among the scenery in the windows before coming back at the blond.

Lloyd, being the small bean that everyone knew he was, took the bait and followed his partner's look-

-And gaped.

"You're not serious" he breathed, bright green eyes going wide as the rollercoasters, tents and giant sign that belonged to the Mega Monster Amusement Park came into view.

"I am" Chen confirmed with a chuckle, pulling a still shocked Lloyd into an embrace and kissing his cheek.

"We could've gone to a movie…" Lloyd mumbled, still slightly in a daze, quickly shaking his head and turning towards the brunet, "I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but you didn't have to do this" he said with some hesitation, taking his eyesight to the ground.

"Hey" Chen gently tilted the blond's chin upwards, "Don't say that. You deserve this" he had a determined tone on his voice as he grinned, "It's your birthday! And birthdays mean fun times, and I'm going to make sure you have one hell of a good one here"

Lloyd felt incredibly touched and soon imitated his grin, before smirking slightly as a thought occurred to him.

"We" he said, giving Chen an equally determined tone. His boyfriend frowned.

"What?" he asked in confusion.

" _We_  are going to have one hell of a good one" Lloyd clarified, giving Chen a grin before leaning in to whisper in his ear, "It's an amusement park, sweetie, we can afford to be kids again, if only for a few hours" he pulled back looking at his partner a bit hesitantly, "If that's okay, I mean-"

But Chen quickly silenced his doubts with a kiss, and when he broke it, Lloyd felt ecstatic when he noticed that the hazel eyes were filled with wonder and mirth.

"You don't cease to surprise me, Garmadork" Chen admitted. Lloyd offered him a grin.

"Neither do you, Cheerleader"

They both fell into a fit of laughter, stopping only when the train started to slow down in arrival to the station. Chen put away the ear-buds before he and Lloyd got up and walked towards the door hand-in-hand.

Once the doors opened, the two young men exchanged a look of excitement and took off running towards the entrance of the amusement park, carefree laughter coming out of them as they passed families and equally exited children in order to pay for the tickets.

* * *

"It's not funny" Chen whined as he and Lloyd got out of the rollercoaster's shop, the blond holding out a picture like a trophy.

"It totally is" Lloyd replied with a laugh and took another peak at the picture, "Your face-" he snorted with laughter again while Chen gave an indignant squeak.

"How was I supposed to know there was going to be a pause before the drop?!" Chen cried out, yet his lips were slowly curling on the sides, betraying his attempts to look upset much to the blond's amusement and delight.

"…You want me to send you a copy when we get home?"

"I would be offended if you didn't"

Lloyd broke into laughter again, Chen joining his this time; intertwining their hands as they continued to walk around the park, the sun shining high while the newly arrived fall breeze blew around. Beside them, a few kids ran sugar high on cotton candy while their parents tried get hold of them.

The day had to be one of the most peaceful ones in Lloyd's memory, not a single bad thing to happen while they went around the rides (except for the Haunted House, they were both done with ghosts to last a lifetime) and ate candy and trash food to their hearts content while taking silly pictures (or as Kai and Ronin would had called it, their 'Honeymoon Phase').

No one had also recognized him, which he was eternally grateful, not only for his sake but also Chen's. The last thing they both whished was for someone to find out the Green Ninja had a romantic partner, but it wasn't that they were keeping things a secret either. Lloyd and Chen both supposed that they were lucky that people in Ninjago City, despite the fact that sometimes you would see snake people in an alley and someone terrorizing the city every once in a while, were painfully oblivious when the Ninja didn't have their gi's on.

Also, Lloyd didn't really want to sign autographs on his birthday.

"We haven't tried the carnival games yet" the blond pointed out a while later after they had gotten the sweet/acid cotton candy he had once suggested a lifetime ago to the brunet as the evening started rolling around, the sun lazily starting to set on the horizon.

"Want me to get you a prize?" Chen asked with mild humor as they briefly paused in front of one of the stands that offered plushy Batmans, ninjas and dragons.

"Not really" Lloyd replied with a faint smile, holding a package full of attraction photographs, "I think these are enough" he added with a small smirk.

"True" Chen admitted, returning the smirk, "How about we get souvenirs? I know Skylor would  _love_  a Red Ninja plushy"

They both ended up winning the damned plush toy, plus a Green Ninja one, which Chen insisted on keeping on the excuse that it would help decorate his dorm room once he started college on January.

"You're keeping it because you like me" Lloyd would later playfully accuse him once they had gotten off the train back home.

"Well, maybe I'm keeping it because I'm your biggest fan" Chen replied with a soft smile. Lloyd huffed.

"Cause I'm the savior of Ninjago?" he asked with slight hesitation, getting confused when his boyfriend gently shook his head and turned to look at him fondly.

"No" he said, "Because you're Lloyd. My best friend, my significant other" he briefly wiggled his eyebrows while Lloyd giggled, "Someone who keeps on getting up despite the odds"

"Have I told you that I love when you cheer me up? 'Cause I do" the blond revealed as a faint blush came over him and gave Chen a peek on the lips.

"If it means that you will keep giving me kisses like that, I would do it 24/7" the brunet replied with a serious look before wrapping a hand over Lloyd's hips as they both spotted the  _Destiny's Bounty_  once they turned over a corner-

-And both stopping almost immediately.

The whole upper deck of the ship was decorated with green and gold garlands as the shapes of five people went around running around the deck in near chaos.

"Is this normal?" Chen whispered as they both started to cautiously approach the  _Bounty_  and Nya's voice yelled for her sibling.

"Yep" Lloyd replied as a smile crept on his face at the familiarity, the voices of the ninja becoming clearer as they kept on walking.

"-Jay, I swear to the FSM, if you put thirteen candles instead of nineteen-" Kai's voice had a warning edge to it.

"What makes you think I did?!" Jay's yelp of offence was probably heard all across New Ninjago City.

"Because the package had twenty, I took out nineteen in the kitchen for you and Zane to put on the cake and now there's six missing candles and only one spare left!"

"Maybe the gift stole them"

That made both Lloyd and Chen pause abruptly, sharing a look that clearly said:  _'You heard that too, right?'_  

"Jay"

"I'm being honest!"

"Should I point out that there are spare candles on one of the kitchen cabinets?" Zane's voice had peacekeeper tone to it.

"Oh for the FSM-" this time it was Skylor's exasperated voice, although it sounded a bit strange. Hoarse. Like she had been sneezing.

"Why would the birthday gift steal a pair of candles? It's supposed to be in a box!"

Lloyd exchanged a look of bewilderment with Chen.

"What the hell have they got me that would steal a pair of candles?" the blond mumbled with slight exasperation.

"I… think I know" Chen whispered back with mild amusement, "Should we tell them we're here?" he asked. Lloyd thought about it, before smirking.

"Oh boy" his boyfriend muttered, "What are you planning?" he inquired, giving him a bemused look.

"Nothing that will land us in jail, if that's what you're worried about" Lloyd laughed before pulling him away from the entrance, towards where the small window to the living room quarter of the ship lay.

"Sneaking in?" Chen said with a giggle as Lloyd used his powers to open the lock, "Does this make me an honorary ninja?" he inquired, crossing his arms and giving the blond a raised eyebrow.

"I thought you didn't want to be a ninja" Lloyd replied with a cheeky grin as he positioned himself in the ground for Chen to climb first.

"Honorary ninja is not the same thing as a ninja" the brunet said as he gladly took the impulse, jumped and climbed inside, pocking his head and arm for Lloyd to pass the bags containing the souvenirs before he too sneaked into the ship.

"Plus" Chen continued on once Lloyd had landed, "I'm more a healer" he said with a small wink. The blond gave him a soft smile.

"Yes, yes you are" he breathed before extending his hand, "Ready to give them a surprise?"

"This is going to be fun" Chen laughed as he gladly took the invitation and they both silently got out of the living room and towards the upper deck, just when Cole was asking:

"Where is Lloyd anyway? Is he hanging out this late with Chen Jr?"

Both young men only exchanged a look before Lloyd loudly cleared his throat and said:

"That's one way to put it…" he trailed off as the result was a sight to behold. Jay and Kay gave out a startled jump and nearly collided with each other midair; Cole turned around so fast that he accidently smacked Zane in the face; while Skylor and Nya both gave a small yelp before giving them both an unimpressed glare-

And then four pair of eyes took hold of Chen and Lloyd intertwined hands.

"…But we prefer the term date, thank you very much" Chen finished as they both gave a small wave.

"FSM" Nya whispered as a smile crept on her face before turning to Kai and Skylor, who were looking a bit too innocent, "When we asked if there was anything new, THIS would have been a great deal breaker!" she all but yelled at her brother before turning towards Lloyd and Chen once again and running towards the blond and engulfing him in a hug.

"Happy Birthday, hell spawn" she said with a grin, "And congratulations" she added while giving Chen a small smile.

"Thanks, Nya" he replied as Jay, Zane and Cole crashed onto him too, ecstatic birthday wishes also falling from their mouths and smug looks on their faces.

"I can't believe I called it" Cole said, playfully shoving Lloyd on the shoulder as he turned to Chen, "The last time we were here, I  _very_  jokingly asked if we should expect a relationship between you two when we came back" he explained while giving Lloyd an exasperated look.

"Huh, forgot about that" the blond mussed as Chen laughed.

"Only you" he fondly muttered while Jay joined Nya in yelling at Kai and Skylor over why they didn't say anything at the beginning.

"The two are dramatic! They wanted to surprise you guys!" Kai was screaming back as Skylor calmly took a sip of punch.

"I too am happy for you, Lloyd" Zane revealed, "But I believe Cole is wrong"

"What do you mean?" Chen asked while Cole simply raised his eyebrows.

"Since I was the one who pointed out how they flirted upon meeting, I was the one who truly called it"

Cole sputtered indignantly as he, Zane (and later, Jay) quickly fell into a debate that reminded Lloyd of the simpler times in which they argued over who would become the Green Ninja.

Chen simply gave him a look.

"This is completely normal" Lloyd deadpanned.

"Your family is completely crazy" Chen realized before laughing as Skylor walked up to them.

"Tell me something I don't know" the blond replied, turning to the redhead, "Hi, Skylor"

"Hello and Happy Birthday" she greeted, and yep, her voice was definitely hoarse, "Did you two have fun?"

"Lots" Lloyd answered with a grin as Chen frowned.

"Sy…" he tentatively started to ask, "Have you been near a-?"

But whatever he was going to say got cut by Kai's voice.

"Alright then!" the spiky-haired ninja parted his way through the bickering trio of Zane, Cole and Jay with a box, "Time for the present" he revealed in a showman voice that put Jay's to shame.

"What happened to eating the cake and then opening presents?" Lloyd asked, frowning slightly at the box.

"Well, we know we usually give you candy" Jay said, quickly taking in the younger ninja's slight specktism, "But we all came together months ago-"

"And trusted Kai to find… whatever's in the box" Lloyd finished, "Still doesn't explain-"

But at that same moment the box started shaking in Kai's hands.

"The gift is getting impatient" the Red Ninja deadpanned with a slight smile as he handled the box to Lloyd, who gave his family one last look of confusion before reaching towards the gift.

The first thing that received him when he lift the lid were a small pair of round green eyes peaking at him from the corner of the box.

"You guys didn't" was the first thing Lloyd said, staring at the grey kitten with slight shock and wonder while Chen yelled, "I was right!"

"We did" Nya chuckled as the blond tentatively reached out to pet the furry little animal.

The kitten initially made itself smaller when Lloyd put his hand inside the box, but when it noticed that he was wasn't forcing anything his hand onto it, just giving it a gentle smile, the cat hesitantly let its head bump into Lloyd's hand. The cat gave him a small happy chirp when the young man used his fingers to scratch the back of its neck, slightly raising his eyebrows when he noticed that there was already a collar around its neck.

"Her name is Meowthra" Kai said as Lloyd carefully picked up the kitten from the box.

"Wait, what?" Chen and Lloyd both asked at the same time, checking the tag to see if his friend was joking and realizing that he was being serious.

"I didn't gave her the name!" the Red Ninja sputtered indignantly as Jay and Cole started wheezing, "The pound gave it to her"

"I can confirm" Skylor said with a slight raised hand, the hoarseness in her voice making more sense as Lloyd remembered that Chen had mentioned that Skylor had inherited her mother's cat allergy.

"And someone in that pound thought that 'Meowthra' was a good name for a cat?" Lloyd asked with clear skepticism as he gently scratched the kitten's ears. Meowthra simply gave him a small purr and snuggled herself onto his hoodie.

"Maybe they were watching  _Godzilla_  when she arrived" Jay pointed out. The rest, minus Lloyd and Chen, who were too busy watching the kitten trying to climb the blond's arm, gave him a look,

"Oh come on, don't tell me you guys don't see the clear pun in-"

"-Mothra's name?" Chen finished with a raised eyebrow as he tentatively patted the kitten on the head. Jay gaped at him, before turning to the Green Ninja with ecstatic look.

"Lloyd. Lloyd, he got it, he's a keeper, you have to marry-" Jay started to say excitedly before he got pulled over by Cole and Nya while Lloyd gave his boyfriend a slightly offended look.

"Seriously, how am I the dork in this relationship?" he asked with exasperation as he prevented Meowthra from climbing onto his head. She gave him a small indignant yowl in return.

"I'm pretty sure we've had this conversation before" Chen replied with a slight smirk, "And my answer is still the same" he added with a cheeky grin. Lloyd fondly rolled his eyes at him. But then he frowned, turning to look at Kai and Nya.

"How-" he swallowed, "How long have you guys been planning on-"

"Giving you a pet?" Nya finished softly, "After Sensei Wu went missing" she answered gently.

"We thought you could use a companion, with all of us going away" Kai added, "We didn't really count on you meeting Chen though" he admitted, giving said teen a sheepish look before turning to Lloyd again, "But we decided to go with it anyways"

Lloyd went silent for a while, petting Meowthra as he took in the Smith sibling's words. Even if Chen had been a surprise meeting in his life, the fact that his family had thought of him and his loneliness like that made his eyes water.

"Thank you" he finally said, his voice wavering a bit, yet giving them a small smile, "Really"

Kai ruffled his hair at the same time Chen squeezed his hand in support. Meowthra simply gave him a small blink.

"Well then" Cole called, "Are we going to eat cake or not?"

* * *

"I got you something too" Chen whispered an hour later, when the snacks had nearly disappeared alongside the chocolate cake.

The party had gone great, yet Lloyd couldn't help but feel a little down. Nya had shared a brief resume of the expedition for Wu and… well, the results were still the same. Also, Kai was leaving the next day, which was also making him sulk at his own party.

In another time, Lloyd might have hated how he was going to end up all alone, with only himself living in the  _Bounty_.

But things were different this time.

"Really?" Lloyd asked, carefully turning around since Meowthra had decided on taking a nap inside his hoodie and opting to lean against the wooden railing.

"Yep" Chen smiled softly as he placed a sea-green package on the blond's hands, "I- um.. I hope you like it" he said, blushing fiercely as he started playing with his fingers while Lloyd started tearing the paper open.

He couldn't help the gasp when he unfolded the gift.

"Where- how?" he stuttered as he ran a hand through the garment.

It was a black jacket, with decorative prints on the front of a bone ribcage and a green number 5 on the upper left side-

Exactly like the sweater he had when he was a kid.

"I have a friend, from the cheerleading club in high-school" Chen revealed, looking relived at Lloyd's reaction, "She's studying fashion design, and I commissioned her. As for the design, I remembered you and Kai were talking about it a few weeks ago" he smiled briefly, before frowning worriedly, "Do… you like it?" he asked, hesitation clear in his voice at Lloyd's still lack of response.

"Like it?" Lloyd breathed, a full grin taking over his face as he grabbed Chen by the arms, "I love it!" he exclaimed before passionately kissing the brunet, who gave a little yelp of surprise before eagerly responding to the kiss as well.

It was cut short when Jay yelled at them to get a room (which ended up with getting hit on the head by Nya and Kai) and Chen accidentally woke Meowthra from her slumber when he had tangled his hand onto Lloyd's hair.

"Sorry" Chen muttered to the kitten, who simply have him a small hiss as her owner laughed.

"Oh, shush" Lloyd murmured to his pet as he got her out of the hoodie and cradled her in his arms while they both sat on the floor, "You like him"

Meowthra only gave them both a small chirp before trying to climb onto Chen's jacket.

"I think she confirmed that she does, in fact, like me" the brunet pointed out with a smile, Lloyd chuckling along.

Both of them fell into a comfortable silence, taking to stare at the stars above them while the music provided by Cole filled the air. As Meowthra clumsily walked around both teens, Lloyd felt himself reflecting on the last couple of months.

At a low point in his hell-driven life, he made a new friend who he felt he could share everything with. Whom he felt comfortable and at peace with. Someone who understood him.

And then he found himself falling for said friend. And said friend liked him back. Not for being a hero, but for being himself.

"Chen?" he whispered.

"Yes, Lloyd?" the reply he got was soft, and when he turned to stare at this boyfriend, there was a loving spark in his hazel eyes. The haunted look that Lloyd had detected in his lover two months ago was gone, replaced by warmth and hope.

"I'm glad I met you" Lloyd revealed with tender smile.

"I'm glad to have met you too" Chen responded, tilting his head upwards to share another kiss with him.

For the first time in years, while the sounds of Jay and Cole's bickering and Kai and Skylor talked placidly with Nya and Zane filled the air; and Meowthra curled herself on his lap while Chen rested his head onto his shoulder, Lloyd felt at peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, I cannot express how much your support with this fic meant to me. Really, thank you all for the reviews and the love you gave LITD, I don’t think it would have gone far if it weren’t for you guys.
> 
> Now, this is not really the end. There will be a sequel coming up, so if any of you are curious over what’s next for Lloyd and Chen.

**Author's Note:**

> Until the next chapter, don't be shy to leave a review! They are great confidence/writing boosters!


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